{"id":454389,"date":"2025-12-18T00:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/454389\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T00:15:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T00:15:14","slug":"exclusive-sdny-boss-jay-clayton-details-push-to-tackle-nyc-street-crime-and-how-he-earned-recent-attaboy-from-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/454389\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | SDNY boss Jay Clayton details push to tackle NYC street crime – and how he earned recent attaboy from Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton is throwing resources toward tackling violent street crime in the Big Apple, he told The Post Wednesday \u2014 and he\u2019s already gotten a kudos from President Trump for the office\u2019s crackdown on Washington Square Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Clayton, who was appointed to run the powerful Southern District of New York by Trump in April<\/a>, revealed he plans to bring more cases involving drugs, guns and violence in federal court \u2014 where the odds of getting suspects locked up pending trial are higher due to tougher laws.<\/p>\n

\u201cViolent crime on the streets of New York City and the rest of the district is what we are keenly focused on,\u201d Clayton said in an interview, when asked about his top priorities helming the key Department of Justice post.<\/p>\n

New SDNY boss Jay Clayton says tackling violent street crime in federal court is a top priority. Brian Zak\/NY Post<\/p>\n

Clayton sat for an interview minutes after holding a press conference announcing the busts of 12 alleged narcotics peddlers <\/a>for brazenly running an open-air drug market at an East Harlem public housing project for more than three years.<\/p>\n

His office is seeking pre-trial detention for the suspects \u2014 and already convinced federal judges to lock up more than a dozen people accused of hawking similarly dangerous drugs in and around Washington Square Park<\/a>, with that case pending, court records show.<\/p>\n

The sweeping busts at the famed Greenwich Village greenspace in October earned him congratulations from the president, who told him \u201cGreat job!\u201d in a brief phone call, Clayton, who served as SEC director during Trump\u2019s first term, told The Post.<\/p>\n

A source close to Trump, who has played golf with Clayton several times over the years at his Bedminster, New Jersey course, confirmed that the call took place.<\/p>\n

Clayton said Wednesday that part of the strategy to tackle street crime cases federally is to increase the odds of a suspect being detained while their case is pending, and for the allegations to actually make it to trial, compared to in state court. <\/p>\n

Federal judges are allowed to take community safety into account when setting bail, while jurists in New York state are only allowed by law to consider someone\u2019s risk of flight in many bail-eligible cases.<\/p>\n

Clayton announced Wednesday a federal crackdown on an alleged open air drug market in East Harlem. Luiz C. Ribeiro for New York Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to believe that people are innocent until proven guilty, but there are many circumstances where a pretrial detention decision in the affirmative is the right way to go for society,\u201d Clayton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know from studies that when you have a repeat violent offender, continuous custody is the thing that reduces crime most,\u201d Clayton added.<\/p>\n

Prison reform advocates have contested that argument, citing data showing an increase in recidivism<\/a> for suspects who spend time in jail.<\/p>\n

Clayton still plans to continue investigating cases involving other issues in SDNY\u2019s purview such as sex trafficking and public corruption, he said.<\/p>\n

He declined to comment when asked about the infamously abandoned bribery case against outgoing Mayor Eric Adams<\/a>, which sparked the departure of several of the office\u2019s veteran corruption prosecutors.<\/p>\n

When asked whether his bar for bringing corruption cases was higher than under his Democrat-appointed predecessor, Damian Williams, Clayton said: \u201cMy bar is to bring the cases that New Yorkers want.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should bring the public corruption cases that New Yorkers want us to bring,\u201d he said broadly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what I ask the line prosecutors when they say, \u2018Here\u2019s where we are.\u2019 I say, \u2018is this a case New Yorkers would want us to bring?’\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton stressed several times during the half-hour sit-down that going after the deadly fentanyl scourge and violent street crime was a top priority.<\/p>\n

Clayton\u2019s indictment of 19 people for allegedly dealing dangerous narcotics in Washington Square Park earned him kudos in a phone call from President Trump. REUTERS<\/p>\n

\u201cI have limited resources. In what various ways can I deploy them to have the most positive impact for New Yorkers?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFentanyl is clearly one. Fentanyl is a big risk. Street crime is not just a big risk, but it has ripple effects throughout the community,\u201d Clayton said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf New York doesn\u2019t feel safe, tourism goes down, people don\u2019t want to live here, companies don\u2019t want to have their employees here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clayton was also given the high-profile task by US Attorney Pam Bondi in November<\/a> \u2014 at Trump\u2019s public urging \u2014 to handle a new probe of dead pedophile Jeffrey Epstein\u2019s links to Democratic bigwigs and institutions like JP Morgan Chase.<\/p>\n

He declined to comment Wednesday when asked if his office had taken any investigative steps or assigned any prosecutors in response to Bondi\u2019s order.<\/p>\n

Clayton also didn\u2019t comment on Trump\u2019s pardoning<\/a> of former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hern\u00e1ndez, who was convicted in a 2024 case brought by SDNY of enabling drug traffickers to smuggle tons of cocaine into the US.<\/p>\n

\u201cPardon power is absolutely the president\u2019s power to exercise, in any way, she or he sees it,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s our Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Steven Nelson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manhattan US Attorney Jay Clayton is throwing resources toward tackling violent street crime in the Big Apple, he…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":454390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,17628,4219,6335,27633,5248,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,67,586,132,5230,68,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-454389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-corruption","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-exclusive","12":"tag-manhattan-federal-court","13":"tag-metro","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkcity","18":"tag-ny","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-united-states","21":"tag-united-states-of-america","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","24":"tag-us","25":"tag-us-news","26":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115737692108745448","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/454390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}