President Donald Trump on Wednesday revoked the security clearances belonging to former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs and former DHS official Miles Taylor. The president also ordered investigations into the work they did during his first term in the White House.
As part of a flurry of executive orders and directives signed in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum regarding Krebs that “addresses his access to government existing clearances he might have.”
White House staff secretary Will Scharf further explained that the memorandum directs the Department of Justice (DOJ) and “other aspects” of the federal government “to investigate some of the malign acts” Krebs may have participated in while serving as CISA director.
“This is a man who weaponized his position against free speech in the election context, in the context of COVID-19,” Scharf said. “This is another, similar Presidential Memorandum to the one you just signed. It addresses his access to government existing clearances he might have, and further instructs your Department of Justice, other aspects of your government, to investigate some of the malign acts that he participated in while he was still head of CISA.”
Krebs emerged as a controversial figure in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election when he dismissed any claims of fraud and impropriety despite calls for a thorough investigation into numerous abnormalities. Krebs was ultimately fired by Trump after he publicly dismissed any questions surrounding the election, which he described as the “most secure in American history.”
Trump described the move as an important step to restoring accountability within the federal government, referring to Krebs as a “fraud” and a “disgrace.”
“I don’t know that I met him. I’m sure I met him, but I didn’t know him, and he came out right after the election — which was a rigged election, a badly rigged election. We did phenomenally in that election,” the president said.
In a fact sheet from the White House, it was explained that the Presidential Memorandum “directs the head of every federal agency to immediately revoke any active security clearance held by Krebs.” In addition, agencies were also directed to suspend “any active security clearance held by individuals and entities associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with national interest.”
The order also instructs the DOJ to open investigations into Krebs and ex-DHS official Miles Taylor, a former low level Trump Administration who has gleefully bragged about leading “the resistance” during the president’s first term.
For Taylor, the order specifically references any security clearance provided to individuals at the University of Pennsylvania, where Taylor is a lecturer, “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”
In 2018, an op-ed published in the New York Times by a “senior administration official” made a number of unverified claims of misconduct on the part of the administration, while the “anonymous” author bragged about derailing Trump’s directives from within. Taylor, who went on to work as a political analyst for CNN after leaving the administration, was revealed as the author of the piece in 2020.
“I think he’s guilty of treason if you want to know the truth,” Trump said while signing the order pertaining to Taylor.
