US President Donald Trump fired Chris Krebs, the nation’s top cybersecurity officer, via Twitter. Trump accused Krebs without proof of making “very false” statements about the integrity of the US presidential election.
Krebs, whose job it was to protect the election process from hacker interference, had incited Trump’s anger for contradicting election misinformation, the British Reuters news agency reported last week.
Krebs had, among other things, dismissed Trump’s allegations of electoral fraud against the Democrats. He told reporters at the time that he expected to be fired.
The officer headed the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency of the Department of Homeland Security. A spokesperson for that agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Reuters coverage sparked a torrent of support for Krebs from cybersecurity experts, who praised him for the work he has done for all sides over the past two years. Trump is angry with Krebs, among other things, because his agency ran a website called ‘Rumor Control’, which denounced misinformation surrounding the election, three insiders say.
Shortly after President Trump posted the resignation tweet on Tuesday night (local time), he wrote on Twitter that “the only safe thing about our 2020 election” was that they were “virtually impenetrable to foreign powers.” After that, Trump reiterated his baseless allegations of electoral fraud against Democrats, among others.
“Honored to serve,” Krebs wrote on his private Twitter account. “We did well. Defend today, safe tomorrow.”
