Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, who served under Trump, targeted as president\u2019s persecution of critics intensifies<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump\u2019s persecution of critics intensified on Wednesday when he ordered the justice department<\/a> to investigate a whistleblower and a cybersecurity director who refuted unfounded claims of election fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US president signed memorandums targeting Miles Taylor<\/a> and Chris Krebs, former homeland security officials who served in the first Trump administration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor had worked in the George W Bush administration and as a senior aide on Capitol Hill. After Trump\u2019s election in 2016, he joined the homeland security department, eventually becoming chief of staff to the secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in 2018, under the pseudonym \u201cAnonymous\u201d, he wrote a column<\/a> in the New York Times newspaper under the headline \u201cI Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration\u201d. Trump demanded that the Times reveal his identity, tweeting: \u201cTREASON?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor subsequently quit the administration and followed up with a book, A Warning<\/a>, attributed to \u201cAnonymous: A Senior Trump Administration Official\u201d, again portraying the president as unfit for office. Taylor made his identity public\u2002in October 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Wednesday, Trump, who campaigned with a promise of \u201cretribution\u201d, signed a presidential memorandum accusing Taylor of leaking classified information, stripping him of any active security clearance and ordering the Department of Justice to investigate his activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sitting in the Oval Office, the president said he could barely remember Taylor: \u201c<\/em>I said, who the hell is Miles Taylor? And he made a living on going on CNN talking about the president. And I think what he did \u2013 he wrote a book, Anonymous, said all sorts of lies and bad things. I think it\u2019s like a traitor. It\u2019s like spying.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump added: \u201cI didn\u2019t know anything about him and he wrote a book, Anonymous, and I always thought it was terrible \u2026 We\u2019re going to find out whether or not somebody is allowed to do that. I think it\u2019s a very important case and I think he\u2019s guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth, but we\u2019ll find out.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Taylor responded on social media that Trump had proved his point by using the justice department to pursue revenge. He wrote on X<\/a>: \u201cI said this would happen. Dissent isn\u2019t unlawful. It certainly isn\u2019t treasonous. America is headed down a dark path. Never has a man so inelegantly proved another man\u2019s point.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked by the Guardian whether he had concerns about his civil liberties were officials to seek to prosecute him, Taylor said in a text message: \u201cWell, if they do that, all Americans should be worried about their own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump also took action against Krebs, who served as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within the homeland security department. Krebs was responsible for coordinating efforts to secure the 2020 presidential election and countered false claims of voter fraud. Trump fired him two weeks later<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wednesday\u2019s memorandum accused Krebs of weaponising his position against free speech in the context of the election and the Covid pandemic, again addressing his clearances and ordering the justice department to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trump repeated his bogus claims of a \u201cbadly rigged election\u201d, which have been widely debunked by courts and experts. He said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to find out about this guy, too, because this guy\u2019s a wise guy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe said this is the most secure election in the history of our country. No, this was a disaster and frankly we should go to paper ballots, same-day voting, voter ID and one other thing: a vote, you should get a little certificate that says you\u2019re a citizen of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The president added: \u201cI think he said this is the safest election we\u2019ve ever had and yet every day you read in the papers about more and more fraud that\u2019s discovered. He\u2019s the fraud. He\u2019s a disgrace. So we\u2019ll find out whether or not it was a safe election and, if it wasn\u2019t, he\u2019s got a big price to pay, and he\u2019s a bad guy.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The actions against Taylor and Krebs came amid a flurry of executive orders and memoranda signed by Trump, who was flanked by cabinet members including the treasury secretary, Scott Bessent<\/a>, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick and the interior secretary, Doug Burgum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One executive order was aimed at reviving US shipbuilding and reducing China\u2019s grip on the global shipping industry. Trump told reporters that he would be spending \u201ca lot of money on shipbuilding\u201d because the country had fallen \u201cway behind\u201d in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Another launched a review of procurement programmes at the Pentagon. The order aims to modernise the structure at the department to ensure the US is \u201cgetting value for the money [and] to ensure that we\u2019re getting the best possible systems in the field\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the orders ends what was billed as Joe Biden\u2019s \u201cwar on showers\u201d by deregulating water pressure from shower heads and household appliances. \u201cIn my case I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,\u201d Trump mused. \u201cI have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes till it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n