Trump fires top U.S. election cybersecurity official who defended vote
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[November 18, 2020]
By Joseph Menn and Christopher Bing
SAN FRANCISCO/
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -
President Donald Trump on Tuesday fired top cybersecurity official Chris
Krebs in a message on Twitter, accusing him without evidence of making a
"highly inaccurate" statement affirming the Nov. 3 election was secure
and rejecting claims of fraud.
Trump has made debunked allegations that the election was "rigged" and
has refused to concede defeat to President-elect Joe Biden. His campaign
has filed a flurry of lawsuits in battleground states, although election
officials in both parties have said they see no evidence of serious
irregularities.
Krebs' work in protecting the election from hackers and combating
disinformation about the vote won praise from lawmakers of both parties
as well as state and election officials around the country. But he drew
the ire of Trump and his allies, who were irked over his refusal to
support allegations of election meddling.
Reuters reported last week that Krebs had told associates he expected to
be fired.
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Trump said on Twitter that Krebs had assured people in a "highly
inaccurate" statement that the election had been secure when there were
"massive improprieties and fraud - including dead people voting, Poll
Watchers not allowed into polling locations," and voting machine errors
that flipped votes from Trump to Biden.
Dozens of election security experts on Monday released a letter saying
claims of major hacks were unsubstantiated and absurd on their face.
Twitter slapped warning labels on Trump's posts, noting: "This claim
about election fraud is disputed."
Krebs headed the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) from its inception two years ago.
He angered the White House over a website run by CISA dubbed "Rumor
Control," which debunks misinformation about the election, according to
the three people familiar with the matter.
A CISA spokesperson said the agency had no comment.
Krebs was not given notice of Trump's plan to fire him, according to a
person familiar with the matter, and learned of the decision through
Twitter.
Matthew Travis, Krebs' deputy and the number two at the agency, resigned
on Tuesday night.
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CISA Executive Director Brandon Wales is expected to take over for Krebs
as the acting head of the agency on Wednesday, an agency official told
Reuters on condition of anonymity.
Wales has served in multiple positions within the DHS under the Trump
administration and is not seen as a partisan figure, said a former
colleague.
The Reuters report last week prompted an outpouring of support from
security experts across the country, who praised Krebs for his
bipartisan work in the past two years.
White House displeasure with Krebs grew over the past year, according to
two former officials, as Trump criticized the security of mail-in voting
and Krebs' agency countered by saying it represented a secure way to
vote. Mail-in balloting reached a record high this year because of
concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
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![](../images/111820PIX/news_f11.jpg)
U.S. Department of Homeland Security Under Secretary Chris Krebs
speaks to reporters at the DHS Election Operations Center and
National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC)
in Arlington, Virginia, U.S. November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Jonathan
Ernst/File Photo
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'WE DID IT RIGHT'
On his own Twitter account, Krebs did not back down, writing:
"Honored to serve. We did it right. Defend Today, Secure Tomorrow."
White House officials had previously complained about CISA content
that pushed back against false claims about the election, including
that Democrats were behind a mass election fraud scheme. CISA
officials declined to delete accurate information.
Among other things, one associate of Krebs said the White House was
angry about a post rejecting a conspiracy theory that falsely
claimed an intelligence agency supercomputer and program,
purportedly named Hammer and Scorecard, could have flipped votes
nationally. No such system exists, according to Krebs, election
security experts and former U.S. officials.
A spokesman for President-elect Joe Biden said: "Chris Krebs should
be commended for his service in protecting our elections, not fired
for telling the truth."
Trump's move was also quickly denounced by security officials and
White House critics.
"Krebs was doing important work defending critical infrastructure
and fighting disinformation," said Harri Hursti, an expert on
electronic voting security. "His firing is very disappointing and
appears to be an attempt to undermine the great work he and others
at DHS/CISA have been doing."
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Democrat Adam Schiff, who heads the House of Representatives
Intelligence Committee, said: "The CISA and Director Krebs have
worked diligently to safeguard our elections, provide vital support
to state and local election officials, and inform the American
people about what was true and what was not."
Independent Senator Angus King said Trump was “firing Mr Krebs for
simply doing his job."
"I hope that President-elect Biden will recognize Chris’s
contributions, and consult with him as the Biden administration
charts the future of this critically important agency,” King said.
Senator Ben Sasse, who has been a Trump critic, was among the first
Republicans to push back against the decision.
"Chris Krebs did a really good job — as state election officials all
across the nation will tell you — and he obviously should not be
fired," Sasse said in a statement.
(Reporting by Joseph Menn and Christopher Bing; Additional reporting
by Elizabeth Culliford. Editing by Rosalba O'Brien, Peter Cooney,
Robert Birsel)
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