Jay Clayton talked to several wealthy Trump backers before nomination to SEC

Jay Clayton, the deals lawyer nominated to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, had "substantive" communications with several wealthy backers of then President-elect Donald J. Trump before he was offered the job in January. Mr. Clayton had conversations with venture capital billionaire Peter Thiel and political adviser Rebekah Mercer, both of whom served on Mr. Trump's transition team. Ms. Mercer is the daughter of Robert Mercer, co-chief executive officer of Renaissance Technologies and a major Trump donor. Mr. Clayton also communicated with Stephen Bannon, the campaign's CEO and now the president's chief strategist, according to the nominee's written responses to questions from Senator Sherrod Brown obtained by Bloomberg. A representative for Mr. Clayton declined to comment on the communications. The Wall Street connections that Mr. Clayton cultivated as a Sullivan & Cromwell partner have led Democrats including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to question whether he'll be a tough regulator. The SEC is responsible for crafting and enforcing regulations governing U.S. equity markets and the operations of hedge funds, traders and banks. Mr. Clayton's responses were submitted as a follow-up to his March 23 confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee. Mr. Brown, of Ohio, is the panel's top Democrat. The nominee said in his responses that he also met with billionaire investor Carl Icahn, whose role as an informal adviser to Mr. Trump on deregulation was criticized by Ms. Warren at the hearing. Financial disclosure forms released last month show that Mr. Clayton has been paid $7.6 million since 2015 representing some of Wall Street's biggest firms, including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Bill Ackman's Pershing Square Capital Management. If confirmed by the Senate, he would have to recuse himself for a year from matters involving Sullivan & Cromwell and the companies he represented. He also would be barred from ever weighing in on a specific business deal or an investigation that he worked on as a lawyer.