{"id":43042,"date":"2025-06-03T20:35:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T01:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43042"},"modified":"2025-06-03T21:39:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T02:39:18","slug":"ex-homeland-security-official-taylor-fights-back-against-probe-trump-creating-a-modern-blacklist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=43042","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Homeland Security official Taylor fights back against probe: Trump creating a \u2018modern blacklist\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Miles Taylor,<\/u><\/a> a former deputy chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration who wrote an op-ed criticizing President Trump, said the president is creating a \u201cmodern blacklist.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think he wants to create a modern blacklist and have that blacklist ruin people\u2019s lives,\u201d Taylor responded when asked what he believes Trump\u2019s plan is during an interview on MSNBC\u2019s \u201cDeadline White House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause it\u2019s a lot of effort to go through with trying to pursue and prosecute hundreds of your enemies,\u201d he continued. \u201cAll you need to do is try to successfully do that to a couple, to send a message, and that\u2019s what some of his officials have said.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor wrote an op-ed for the\u2002New York Times<\/u><\/a> in 2018 and later a book under the pseudonym \u201cAnonymous\u201d<\/u><\/a> about how some officials were working to thwart Trump\u2019s impulses. In April, Trump signed a memorandum<\/u><\/a> directing the Department of Justice to investigate Taylor, saying he was likely \u201cguilty of treason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor added that officials have said Trump put forward the orders to investigate him, as well as Chris Krebs,<\/u><\/a> who was ousted from his post as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2020, \u201cto send a message,\u201d adding that \u201cto a certain extent, it works.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m the sole income earner in my household. I had to leave my job,\u201d Taylor said. \u201cMy wife, who\u2019s stayed home with our daughter, had to return to work so that we can buy diapers, so we can buy formula, so we can pay the mortgage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had to go launch a legal defense fund, because we don\u2019t think we can pay for the legal bills for this type of thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor, during an interview with the Associated Press<\/u><\/a>, said the investigation sets a \u201creally, really, really scary precedent\u201d because the president \u201ccan now sign an order investigating any private citizen he wants, any critic, any foe, anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t commit any crime, and that\u2019s what\u2019s extraordinary about this. I can\u2019t think of any case where someone knows they\u2019re being investigated but has absolutely no idea what crime they allegedly committed. And it\u2019s because I didn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor emphasized that there were also threats to his and his family\u2019s security in the wake of Trump\u2019s investigation, even adding that someone advised his wife and him to \u201cgo update your last will and testament to name a guardian for your daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite others advising him to \u201ckeep his head down\u201d in the hopes that the situation will \u201cblow over,\u201d Taylor said, \u201cWe know this guy, we don\u2019t think this will blow over.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m a guy from a small town in Indiana, and you don\u2019t just watch something this wrong happen and not say something,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd we know that that means we\u2019re going to have to take more punches if we\u2019re out there. But this is just wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor also noted his family\u2019s feelings of isolation, noting that he has had close friends call to tell him that they need to keep their distance. However, Taylor emphasized that him speaking out is \u201cnot so that people play the violin for me,\u201d but so he can show how easy it is for the president \u201cto order a revenge investigation against an American.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, this could be happening to anyone, and that\u2019s why we\u2019ve decided to step out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Miles Taylor, a former deputy chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration who wrote an op-ed criticizing President Trump, said the president is creating a \u201cmodern blacklist.\u201d \u201cI think he wants to create a modern blacklist and have that blacklist ruin people\u2019s lives,\u201d Taylor responded when asked what he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":43043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33520,7195,1230],"class_list":["post-43042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-blacklist","tag-taylor","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43042"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43045,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43042\/revisions\/43045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}