Trump campaign lawyer says former cybersecurity chief should be 'shot'

An attorney for President Donald Trump’s reelection efforts said on Monday that Chris Krebs, the former head of U.S. cybersecurity, should be “shot” for going against the president’s conspiracy theories and declaring the 2020 elections as secure.

“Anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity,” said Trump campaign lawyer Joe DiGenova, “that guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”

DiGenova made the remarks on a Monday episode of the “The Howie Carr Show,” which has a history of showcasing Trump’s claims and allies. During the show, DiGenova also listed a number of allegations of mass election irregularities — a phenomenon that elections officials in states across the country agreed was not an issue — in his team’s improbable effort to extend the Trump presidency.

Trump fired Krebs nearly two weeks ago after the former director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency attested that the 2020 elections were among the safest in history. The president, whose personnel decisions have a record of being weighted by his perception of loyalty, fired Krebs by tweet, insisting that the election had been stolen from him.

“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 at the time, leveling false assertions. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated.”

The president also lashed out against Krebs after he participated in a “60 Minutes” interview, broadcast on Sunday, in which Krebs warned against the dangers of the president’s election conspiracy theories. In the days since the election, Trump has angrily tweeted at members of his own party who have refused to buy into his unfounded claims of mass improprieties. Krebs is a Republican, but members of both parties largely viewed him as an apolitical professional civil servant.

DiGenova is part of the team of lawyers, led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, that is fighting against the 2020 election results. Though self-dubbed an “elite strike force,” the team’s scattered public appearances have raised more eyebrows for their outlandishness than their mission. Their conspiracy theories have included allegations related to megadonor George Soros and Hugo Chavez, the deceased former leader of Venezuela.

Before joining Trump's legal team, DiGenova served as U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C. He also worked for Trump as part of the president‘s personal legal defense amid investigations into Russia‘s involvement in the 2016 election.