WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump directed the Department of Justice on Wednesday to investigate his former cybersecurity director over statements denying fraud in the 2020 election – the clearest sign yet that, despite his return to power, Trump has no plans of letting go of his so-called “Big Lie.”
In a memo signed late Wednesday evening, Trump ordered the security clearance stripped from Chris Krebs, who served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) during his first term. The order also directs the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to investigate Krebs’ work at CISA for any conduct “contrary to suitability standards for Federal employees.”
The memo, which targets Krebs by name, represents an extraordinary erosion of the firewall intended to safeguard the Department of Justice from politicization by the White House. It also marks the latest example of Trump using his presidential pen to retaliate against his political enemies – in particular, attorneys and law firms connected to investigations into his 2016 campaign and his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump fired Krebs by Tweet in November 2020 amid a purge of his administration following his loss to President Joe Biden. A lifelong Republican who had won bipartisan praise for his work in defending the nation’s electoral systems from foreign interference, Krebs got the axe after refusing to go along with Trump’s baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Krebs repeatedly defended the integrity of the election, calling it “the most secure in American history.”
Krebs’ statements have long dogged Trump, and on Wednesday, the president made his displeasure with them clear. In his memo, Trump claims Krebs “promoted the censorship of election information” and “falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines.”
Despite dozens of lawsuits and years of investigation by Trump’s most ardent supporters, no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the outcome of the election has ever been found. In 2023, Fox News agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million for amplifying Trump’s lies about the 2020 election. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who served both as one of Trump’s closest advisors and most prominent mouthpieces for false election fraud claims, was disbarred last year over his lies about the election and, in December, was ordered to pay $148 million to two Georgia election workers he falsely accused of participating in a scheme to scan false ballots.
Trump’s lies about the election were cited by hundreds of defendants charged in connection with the sprawling Jan. 6 investigation as their motivation to travel to the U.S. Capitol to oppose the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The riot that ensued resulted in the largest criminal investigation in federal history and more than 1,000 convictions. As one of his first acts in office, Trump pardoned nearly every defendent convicted in connection with the attack on the Capitol and ordered the Justice Department to dismiss hundreds of remaining cases. A handful of defendants whose sentences were commuted, but not pardoned, are still appealing their convictions.
Former members of Trump’s campaign and administration testified before the January 6th Committee that the president was repeatedly told there was no evidence of fraud that would have changed the result of the election. William Stepien, who was hired to run Trump’s 2020 campaign with months left to go, testified in 2022 that Trump ignored those warnings and chose instead to listen to Giuliani, who advised him to declare victory on election night. In a tape deposition, Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, said he told the president the “claims of fraud he was peddling to the public were bull****” and said he became “demoralized” after realizing Trump couldn’t be dissuaded.
“I thought, if he really believes this stuff he’s become detached from reality,” Barr said.
On Wednesday, Trump also ordered security clearances revoked from the cybersecurity firm SentinelOne, where Krebs now serves as chief public policy officer. Krebs also serves on the board at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
After Trump signed the memo Wednesday, Krebs retweeted a post he made following the 2020 election reading, “Honored to serve. We did it right. Defense Today, Secure Tomrorow [sic].”
Krebs wasn’t the only target of Trump’s ire Wednesday. The president also signed a memo directing a similar investigation into Miles Taylor, a former appointee at DHS who penned a much-discussed anonymous op-ed in the New York Times titled, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration.” He later published a book titled “A Warning” containing his criticisms of Trump.
More formally, Trump signed an executive order Wednesday evening directing a series of punitive measures against Susman Godfrey, the law firm that represented Dominion Voting Systems in the defamation suit that led to the nearly $800 million settlement with Fox News. The law firm is also representing Dominion in its lawsuits against MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and Newsmax. Trump’s order came on the same day a judge in Delaware found Newsmax broadcast false claims about Dominion, meaning the case will move forward toward a trial later this month over damages. Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion from the right-wing news channel.
Susman Godfrey is the latest law firm to be targeted by Trump. Beginning last month with Perkins Coie, a firm connected to the investigation into links between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, the president has signed a number of executive orders asserting that law firms connected to Democrats or investigations into him represent national security risks. Those orders have directed the revocation of security clearances and the cancellation of government contracts with the firms.
Perkins Coie sued, arguing the order was unlawful retaliation, and last month a federal judge in D.C. barred the administration from putting several portions of it into effect.
Like Perkins Coie, Susman Godfrey has pledged to fight Trump’s order. But other large law firms have instead decided to pledge millions of dollars in pro bono legal services to Trump. Last month, the firm Paul Weiss made a $40 million pledge to Trump in exchange for his agreement to rescind an executive order targeting the firm over the work of Mark Pomerantz, a former partner with the firm, who helped oversee the hush-money investigation into Trump’s payments to porn star Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal during his 2016 presidential campaign. Other large firms have made similar deals, including Skadden Arps, Milbank LLP and Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, which helped represent the Georgia election workers in their defamation suit against Giuliani.