Breaking: Trump Sics Justice Department on Taylor, Krebs

Former DHS officials singled out for retribution for contradicting Trump's false claims of 2020 election fraud, other presidential actions

Trump retrobution targets Krebs (L) and Taylor

President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to investigate two prominent former senior Homeland Security officials, saying they could be guilty of “treason” because of their criticism of him.

Trump also stripped Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs of their security clearances, although it was not clear if they maintained any. The order “also suspends any active security clearance held by individuals at entities associated with Taylor, including the University of Pennsylvania,” where Taylor is an adjunct professor, “pending a review of whether such clearances are consistent with the national interest.”

Likewise, the order also suspends security clearances held by associates of Krebs at SentinelOne, a California-based cyber security firm, where he is currently employed as the company’s chief intelligence and public policy officer.

Taylor, who served as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly during the first Trump administration, drew Trump’s wrath for writing a blistering New York Times Op-ed, “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration," and later a book, A Warning, both under the pen name “Anonymous," detailing his concerns about the president’s policies. The Op-ed unleashed a furious media campaign to identify him. After he surfaced in October. 2020, he became a prominent TV critic of Trump

“You can't have that happen,” Trump said as he signed the executive order, adding, “I think he's guilty of treason if you want to know the truth, but we'll find out.”

The executive order called Taylor “a bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government position, prioritizing his own ambition, personal notoriety, and monetary gain over fidelity to his constitutional oath.”

Taylor responded on X (formerly Twitter): “I said this would happen. Dissent isn’t unlawful. It certainly isn’t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path. Never has a man so inelegantly proved another man’s point.”