Trump Fires DHS Head of Election Security Over Contested Results

Christopher Krebs, The Department of Homeland Security’s cyber chief, who was in charge of the program that oversaw election security, was fired by President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

Trump announced the dismissal in a tweet Tuesday night, stating clearly that the decision was related to the election results.

The decision to fire Krebs was handed down just after the agency issued a statement saying that the 2020 presidential election was the “most secure in U.S. history.”

In an assessment published on Thursday, a coalition of election security groups, including the National Association of State Election Directors said, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors.”

Sources told Politico last week that Krebs was expecting to be fired over his comments on election security.

Krebs was the Senior Advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Infrastructure Protection, and later worked in the private sector as Director for Cybersecurity Policy for Microsoft.

In March of 2017, he became Senior Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Then in August of 2017, he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Infrastructure Protection. In November of 2018, the National Protection and Programs Directorate was replaced by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Krebs remained as director of the agency.

Since the election, The Trump administration has moved to fire or replace numerous high-ranking officials in the US government.

Last week, CNN reported that top Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have been fired or forced to resign in the days since the election results were announced. After Esper’s departure was reported, four additional senior civilian officials with the Pentagon were also fired or forced to resign, including Esper’s chief of staff.

Esper was replaced by Christopher Miller, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Inside sources believe that the Trump administration now plans to fire and replace Esper’s undersecretaries.

Lisa Gordon-Hagerty, the administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, and the first woman to oversee the agency in charge of the nuclear stockpile, was also required to resign after the election.

Meanwhile, Bonnie Glick, deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development was replaced by acting Administrator John Barsa, and Neil Chatterjee, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was also replaced in the past two weeks.

The Trump campaign has been losing many of its legal challenges in contested states and has failed to pick up any ground in the recounts that were demanded. Still, Trump’s attorney Rudy Guiliani, who is reportedly making up to $20,000 per day for his work on the election lawsuits, promises that the case will be taken to the Supreme Court.