Trump Publicly Names 'Traitor' Staffer in Oval Office Announcement
During his first term, President Donald Trump ordered investigations into former Department of Homeland Security official Miles Taylor and former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Chris Krebs, while also revoking their security clearances.
Trump signed a Presidential Memorandum targeting Krebs, which, according to White House staff secretary Will Scharf, “addresses his access to existing government clearances.” This action was part of a broader series of executive orders and directives executed from the Oval Office.
The memorandum instructs the Department of Justice (DOJ) and “other aspects” of the federal government “to investigate some of the malign acts” Krebs allegedly committed while leading CISA, Scharf explained.
“This is a man who weaponized his position against free speech in the election context, in the context of COVID-19,” Scharf said. “This is another, similar Presidential Memorandum to the one you just signed. It addresses his access to government existing clearances he might have, and further instructs your Department of Justice, other aspects of your government, to investigate some of the malign acts that he participated in while he was still head of CISA.”
Commenting on Krebs, Trump remarked, “I don’t know that I met him. I’m sure I met him, but I didn’t know him, and he came out right after the election — which was a rigged election, a badly rigged election. We did phenomenally in that election.”
According to a White House fact sheet, the Presidential Memorandum orders “the head of every federal agency to immediately revoke any active security clearance held by Krebs.” It also mandates agencies to suspend “any active security clearance held by individuals and entities associated with Krebs, including SentinelOne, pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with national interest.”
Beyond Krebs, the order extends to Taylor, directing the DOJ to investigate him as well. Taylor had publicly claimed to lead “the resistance” against Trump during his first term.
Specifically, the directive highlights Taylor’s security clearances at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is a lecturer, stating they are “pending a review of whether such clearances align with the national interest.”
In 2018, an unnamed “senior administration official” penned an opinion piece in the New York Times alleging misconduct within the Trump administration and describing internal efforts to obstruct the president’s agenda. Taylor, who eventually became a political analyst for CNN, was revealed as the anonymous author in 2020.
While signing the order against Taylor, Trump declared, “If you want to know the truth, I think he’s guilty of treason.”
During a Cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard revealed that U.S. intelligence agencies had uncovered “evidence” showing vulnerabilities in electronic voting systems, suggesting they could be hacked to “manipulate” election results.
“We’ve got a long list of things that we’re investigating. We have the best of the best going after this. Election integrity being one of them. We have evidence of how these electronic voting systems have been vulnerable to hackers for a very long time and vulnerable to exploitation to manipulate the results of the votes being cast,” Gabbard stated.