The DOJ Has Questions About Trump Firing an Election Security Expert Days After the Election

The special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election has subpoenaed members of the former president’s White House staff believed to be involved in the firing of the administration’s top election security expert, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Trump fired former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) Director Christopher Krebs via Tweet weeks after he — you guessed it — said the election was legitimate.

Smith reportedly issued the subpoenas two weeks ago. Sources who spoke to the Times said the special counsel is probing witnesses for information regarding “loyalty” tests, and efforts within Trump’s administration to root out officials whose devotion to Trump was deemed insufficient.  

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Krebs was among those administration figures targeted by former Trump aide John McEntee. According to a memo obtained by ABC News, White House staff drafted a list of Krebs’ alleged sins against the former president. Items included allowing a Black Lives Matter town hall to take place, endorsing mail-in voting, his wife posting a photo on Facebook with a Biden/Harris watermark, and being “known to have direct contact with Dominion [Voting] Systems.”

Trump fired Krebs less than two weeks after the 2020 election.

In addition to examining Trump’s efforts to undermine the election, Smith has also been tasked with investigating the former president’s handling of classified documents following his departure from office. According to a Tuesday report from The Washington Post, Smith’s office has honed in on a yet-unnamed employee who aided in moving boxes of documents containing classified information from a storage room at Mar-a-Lago the day before an FBI official came to the property to collect materials from the room.

Smith’s dual investigations have the former president sweating. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Trump’s own attorneys have told him he should be prepared to be indicted (again). Trump has never been one to take things quietly, of course. Rolling Stone reported on Tuesday that Trump has already informed advisers of his plans to purge federal law enforcement agencies of individuals involved in the investigations into his conduct. He just needs to get elected again to make it happen.

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