Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBy LUKE BARR, ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — The leader of the top cybersecurity agency inside the Department of Homeland Security, who has repeatedly rebuked claims made by President Donald Trump and his campaign about widespread voter fraud, has now been fired, the president Tuesday announced on Twitter.
Christopher Krebs, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, had expected to be fired, a source with knowledge of the situation told ABC News last week.
The president criticized a statement given by Krebs’ agency saying there was no evidence of fraud during the 2020 election. In announcing Krebs’ firing, Trump repeated previously debunked claims of fraud in the election.
“The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that 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 wrote without evidence on Twitter. “Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.”
The tweet was immediately slapped with a warning from Twitter that the claims were disputed.
Krebs was the first director of the CISA and had served since November 2018.
The CISA said in a statement last Thursday, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”
CISA is responsible for securing the 2020 elections and has been exposing what it calls election-related “rumors” on its website — including those spread by Trump and his allies.
CISA’s “Rumor Control” site has debunked everything from software glitches in voting software to votes being cast by dead people.
“While we know there are many unfounded claims and opportunities for misinformation about the process of our elections, we can assure you we have the utmost confidence in the security and integrity of our elections, and you should too,” the members of Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council Executive Committee said. “When you have questions, turn to elections officials as trusted voices as they administer elections.”
The statement goes on to say that “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”
The first reports of Krebs’ expected firing were by Reuters.
Two other CISA staffers, Bryan Ware, assistant director for cybersecurity for CISA, and Valerie Boyd, assistant secretary for international affairs at U.S. Department of Homeland Security, were asked to resign Thursday, a separate source familiar with the matter also told ABC News, but their emails appeared active as of Friday. Neither official responded to an ABC News request for comment.
CISA has not returned a request for comment, and the White House declined to respond when asked whether Krebs would be fired, whether Ware and Boyd were asked to resign, or whether the White House was involved.
On Thursday night, following news reports he expects to be fired, Krebs took to Twitter to personally assure Americans the election was secure.
“America, we have confidence in the security of your vote, you should, too,” he tweeted.
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