Trump Fires CISA Director Chris Krebs Over Election Dispute

President Trump says he has fired the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, Chris Krebs, because Krebs disputed his claims of "widespread voter fraud" in the 2020 election.  

The president made the announcement via Twitter late Tuesday, amidst an ongoing flood of tweets about a rigged election. The president's ongoing claims of "widespread voter fraud" have been disputed by a majority of state and local election officials. 

Krebs came into conflict with the president via his comments that the 2020 election has been secure and free of interference. 

"The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud - including dead people voting, Poll Watchers not allowed into polling locations, “glitches” in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to Biden, late voting, and many more," Trump tweeted.

Krebs addressed his removal, also via Twitter, saying that it had been an "honor to serve" at the agency, while also shooting down the notion that he was in charge of policing "fraud" in the election.    

Under Krebs, CISA grew to become the federal government's top cybersecurity watchdog. Formed in 2018, recent months saw consideration of how CISA should expand — both in its ability to dispense with funding, training and protection to state, local and tribal governments, and its ability to hunt and fight hackers. 

Krebs, who formerly worked at Microsoft for three years on cybersecurity policy, has been with the Department of Homeland Security since 2017, when CISA's predecessor, the National Protection and Programs Protectorate (NPPD), was still the highest cyberfocused risk management office in the federal government.