Chris Krebs isn't a bad-faith actor, he's a patriot

Stand up and protect fellow Americans

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is a part of the Department of Homeland Security responsible for cybersecurity and infrastructure protection across all levels of the government. It was officially formed six years ago as an expansion of the DHS National Protection and Programs Directorate.

CISAs mission is, “to lead the national effort to understand, manage, and reduce risk to our cyber and physical infrastructure”. CISA has become an established name in cybersecurity globally, most publicly supporting election security, threat advisories, and the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities Catalog.

The first head of CISA, Chris Krebs, was nominated in 2018 by then President Donald Trump. Krebs had worked in the DHS and at Microsoft before leading CISA, and is a self-described lifelong member of the GOP. In his time as CISA director, Krebs quickly elevated CISA through clear and direct communication to the general public, effective defense of US critical infrastructure, and protection of US elections.

He led CISA through the defense of the 2020 US Presidential elections by prioritizing efforts to clearly communicate the state of election security to the American public. CISA stated publicly that the election was “the most secure in American history”. While Trump and some of his supporters pushed claims of election fraud, Krebs and CISA stood fast that the election results were accurate. Trump and his supporters lost more than 60 court cases that challenged the outcome of the election, and many republicans came out to publicly state the election was not rigged.

Krebs continued to state publicly that the election was not fraudulent, and shortly after the election, Trump fired Krebs from his role leading CISA via a tweet because of it. As we know, Trump has continued to spread disinformation about the 2020 election results to this day, despite there still being no meaningful evidence of voter fraud or inaccurate election results.

This leads us to last week.

What happened: President Trump issued a presidential memorandum that:

• revoked Chris Krebs security clearance

• suspended security clearances by individuals at entities associated with Krebs, most notably his employer SentinelOne

• directed the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security to review Krebs activities as a government employee

  • including an evaluation of CISAs activities for the past 6 years

  • to identify instances where his “…conduct appears to have been contrary to suitability standards…” in line with Executive Order 14149 from January 20, 2025, titled Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship

The fact sheet and the memorandum also accused Krebs of being a bad faith actor that weaponized and abused government authority with regards to the 2020 election and COVID-19 pandemic.

Take note: There is no evidence that there was any meaningful election fraud during the 2020 election. Quite the opposite - the election was secure. However, this investigation will have consequences.

First: Chris is an example of how the federal government can succeed at standing up a new federal agency. He quickly established CISA as a credible and effective leader and communicator for US cybersecurity efforts. These are the type of people we want in government - the ones that get the job done and do it well. It is a self-inflicted wound to allow the government to target individuals and demonize them for doing their jobs. This will have negative ramifications for United States cybersecurity leadership, not only for CISAs position as a leading cybersecurity agency, but also for efforts to find qualified and effective individuals to lead US cybersecurity efforts. No one will want to take this job on if they believe they will be persecuted for doing it well.

Second: In a best case scenario, the investigation (and potentially the courts) prove out that there is no evidence to the claims against Chris. Even in that scenario, he is likely to have to deal with months to years of legal costs, complications, and threats. To put it into perspective, after the 2020 election, a lawyer for the Trump campaign called for Krebs to be “drawn and quartered” and taken out at dawn and shot.” After that statement by the lawyer, Krebs faced a barrage of threats and harassment that forced his family to leave their home and left his kids terrified. Even when someone is accused with no evidence, given the nature of Internet polarization, there are long term and unfair consequences they are forced to face.

Third: While this may not seem as overt an authoritarian move as Putin leaving a suspicious series of defenestration deaths in his wake, all authoritarians have to start somewhere. They tend to start by targeting people that speak out in opposition to them - suggesting an investigation to authorities, which leads to an arrest and conviction. Putin’s most widely considered first example of this is Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who he tasked authorities with investigating and convicting back in 2003. In some of its darker moments, the American government has targeted individuals in this way, such as during the Red Scare and during McCarthyism. These actions are viewed as dark moments in American history for a reason: it is anti-American to target individuals with no evidence and to assume they are guilty.

We cannot allow American leadership to target and attempt to subjugate American citizens. We must lift up these Americans for what the evidence shows: patriotism and a job well done.

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