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US President Donald Trump has targeted two former government officials with executive orders after they criticised him during his first term in office.
Christopher Krebs, former head of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is set to have his security clearance revoked, according to the new directive.
Krebs’ most notable criticism of Trump was in regard to the President’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraud when he lost to former president Joe Biden.
Trump fired Krebs on 17 November 2020, just five days after CISA released a statement calling the election “the most secure in American history.”
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud,” said Trump, who also claimed without evidence that there had been “dead people voting”, “glitches in voting machines that changed Trump Votes to Biden” and “poll watchers not allowed in polling locations.”
Alongside the directive, Trump also said an investigation would take place into Kreb’s time as a government employee, including as the head of CISA.
“We’re going to find out about this guy too because this guy is a wise guy,” he said, adding that Krebs was “a disgrace.”
Krebs was unable to provide comment on the matter to Cyber Daily at the time of writing.
Following his firing from the US government, Krebs co-founded a cyber security consultancy with former Facebook CSO Alex Stamos called the Krebs Stamos Group. The company was then acquired by SentinelOne in 2023, leading to Krebs becoming the firm’s chief intelligence and public policy officer.
Trump has also said that the security clearances for SentinelOne workers would also be revoked after a review.
Krebs sat down with Cyber Daily last month to discuss nation-state hackers and the importance of cyber security as a whole-of-business issue.
The other former government official targeted by Trump’s executive order trigger-happiness was Miles Taylor, former senior official at the Department of Homeland Security during Trump’s first term.
Once again, Taylor has been stripped of security clearance and the Justice Department has been ordered to investigate him. Taylor wrote a book in 2019 criticising Trump and his presidency.
“I think it’s a very important case, and I think he’s guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth, but we’ll find out,” Trump said while signing the executive order.
Taylor responded, slamming the President’s actions.
“I said this would happen. Dissent isn’t unlawful. It certainly isn’t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path,” he said over text.
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