Trump Fires Election Cybersecurity Chief for Debunking Fraud Claims
President Trump fires CISA Director Christopher Krebs after the agency publishes statements debunking false election fraud claims. Krebs insists his team did the work right and protected election integrity.
President Donald Trump fires Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), via Twitter. Krebs leads the federal government's election cybersecurity efforts and recently faces public criticism from the White House over his agency's Rumor Control blog. This blog actively rebuts false claims of election fraud and hacking that Trump and his lawyers promote after the recent election.
The firing comes shortly after CISA joins a joint statement with the Election Assistance Commission and state election officers confirming the election's legitimacy. That statement clearly declares that there is no evidence any voting system deletes, loses, or changes votes. Trump falsely labels this accurate assessment as "highly inaccurate" in his tweet announcing the termination.
Sources close to Krebs say they expect this firing for days, describing the situation as a matter of "when, not if." Krebs learns of his dismissal through Twitter, which he finds upsetting because he takes his cybersecurity work seriously. Despite his sudden removal, Krebs tells NBC News that he is proud of the work his team did at CISA and maintains that they did it right.