Former CISA director Chris Krebs vows to fight back against Trump-ordered federal investigation

Former top Trump cybersecurity official Chris Krebs told The Wall Street Journal in an interview on Wednesday that he vowed to fight back against a federal investigation ordered into him by President Trump.

Krebs said in the interview that he will resign from his position at cybersecurity firm SentinelOne in order to challenge the federal investigation, which claims Krebs “falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen.” The order also stripped Krebs of his security clearance. 

“It’s about the government pulling its levers to punish dissent, to go after corporate interests and corporate relationships,” Krebs told the Journal. 

Trump hired Krebs in 2018 to lead the newly created U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which oversees federal cybersecurity and election security. Trump fired Krebs in November 2020 soon after publicly debunking Trump’s false claims of voting irregularities. 

Per the Journal, Krebs joins a growing list of former government officials, law firms, and universities pushing back on the Trump administration’s use of the executive branch to target critics and dissenters.