Former top U.S. cybersecurity official Chris Krebs is weighing in after a Trump campaign lawyer made death threats against him.
Krebs, who led the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), was fired by President Donald Trump two weeks ago.
Now, Krebs is being threatened by a lawyer on Trump’s re-election campaign, Joe diGenova.
DiGenova said on “The Howie Carr Show,” anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity. That guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”
In response, Krebs said during Tuesday’s “Today” interview, “The way I look at it is that we’re a nation of laws and I plan to take advantage of those laws. I’ve got an exceptional team of lawyers that win in court, and I think they’re probably going to be busy.”
Asked about potential legal action arising from remarks like those made by the lawyer, Krebs said, “We’re taking a look at all of our available opportunities.”
When asked if he is worried about his safety, Krebs said he is not going to “give them the benefit of knowing how I’m reacting to this. They can know that there are things coming though.”
Watch Krebs’ interview below:
.@SavannahGuthrie speaks with Christopher Krebs in his first live interview since being fired as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Krebs points to the record of paper ballots as proof that the 2020 election was secure. pic.twitter.com/R9tdsTNBgZ
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) December 1, 2020
In a tweet where he noted Krebs was “terminated,” Trump accused Krebs of making a “highly inaccurate” statement — referring to a statement where his former agency said there “is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.” The agency also said this year’s election was “the most secure in American history.”
Krebs also touched on the allegations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election made by the Trump campaign.
He said during the “Today” interview, “I am yet to see anything based in reality that would change my opinion,” referring to the previous CISA statement, adding that his former agency has “confidence” that “this was a secure election.”
On how he knows the election was secure, Krebs said, “It’s kind of a keep it simple, stupid approach: Paper ballots, 90-95% votes cast in the 2020 election had a voter-verifiable paper audit trail… And then regardless of what happens next in the subsequent canvass audit and recount process, if there is some sort of machine that’s compromised there’s subsequent checks.”
“The ability to go back, you effectively have the receipts and you can check the outcomes,” he added.