Trump White House aides subpoenaed in firing election security expert

The special counsel investigating former President Donald J. Trump’s attempts to stay in power after he lost the 2020 election has subpoenaed Trump White House staffers who may have been involved in firing the cybersecurity officer of the government whose bureau judged the elections “the safest”. in American history,” said two people who briefed on the matter.

The team led by Special Counsel, Jack Smith, questioned witnesses about the events surrounding the firing of Christopher Krebs, the Trump administration’s top cybersecurity official during the 2020 election. Mr. Krebs’ assessment that the election was safe , was at odds with Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that it was “defrauding the American public.”

Mr. Smith’s team is also seeking information on how White House officials, including the Presidential Personnel Office, approached the Justice Department, which Mr. stay in power, people familiar with the questions said.

The researchers seem focused on Mr. Trump’s state of mind surrounding Mr. Krebs’ firing, as well as establishing a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. final subpoenas, issued about two weeks ago, have gone to personnel office officials, according to the two people familiar with the case.

Mr. Krebs enraged Mr. Trump when his agency, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, released a statement nine days after the 2020 election, confirming that the results are secure. The statement added a sharp rebuke – in bold – to the baseless conspiracy theories Mr. Trump and his allies spread about compromised voting machines.

“There is no evidence that any voting system has removed or lost votes, altered votes or been compromised in any way,” the statement from Mr. Krebs’ office said.

Five days later, Mr Trump tweeted that Mr Krebs had been “terminated” after he released a “deeply inaccurate” statement about the 2020 election.

Mr. Krebs later testified before the House special committee research into the January 6 attack on the Capitol that he was aware of “skepticism” among Trump allies about his “loyalty to the president” before his resignation.

It was much more than skepticism. Within the Presidential Personnel Office, a small group of Trump loyalists, led by former personal aide to Mr. Trump John McEntee, was on a mission to find and fire people deemed disloyal to Mr. Trump within the federal bureaucracy . And they had labeled the outspoken Mr. Krebs as one of the unfaithful.

Employees of the personnel office had prepared a document on Mr Krebs outlining reasons for mistrusting him. The memo, first reported by ABC News’ Jonathan Karl, details a litany of Mr Krebs’ alleged sins against Mr Trump, including: “Woman posted family photo to Facebook with ‘Biden Harris’ logo watermarked at bottom .”

Mr. Smith’s team is asking witnesses about broader efforts by Mr. Trump’s personnel officials to test the loyalty of federal officials and potential collaborators, the people briefed on the matter said. Mr. McEntee was seen on the grand jury in recent months.

Months before the 2020 election, Mr. McEntee, now the head of a conservative dating app, and a deputy to review the government’s hiring process. They developed what became known by some officials as “the loyalty test— a new questionnaire for government employees that asked questions like “Which part of candidate Trump’s campaign message resonated with you the most and why?”

Mr. Krebs is among those interviewed by Mr. Smith’s team, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr Krebs declined to comment when contacted.

Mr. Smith’s team has also been trying to find out how the personnel office was dealing with the Justice Department as Mr. Trump seized every available tool within his bureaucracy that could help him undermine the 2020 election result.

During his final weeks in office, Mr. Trump grew increasingly frustrated with department leaders as one after another rebuffed his pressure on them to falsely state that large-scale voter fraud had taken place in swing states, such as Georgia, which Mr. Trump committed. lost to Mr. Biden.

By the time the election came around, Heidi Stirrup, a loyalist close to Trump’s policy adviser Stephen Miller, had been appointed as the White House liaison to the Justice Department. Mr. Smith’s office has been asking questions about her role, one of those briefed on the matter said.

Ms Stirrup was banned from entering the Justice Department building a month after the 2020 election, after trying to sensitive information from department officials about efforts to detect election fraud, officials with knowledge of the episode said.

Shortly thereafter, Attorney General William P. Barr, who had long viewed Mr. Trump as an ally, resigned after telling Mr. Trump that his theories about election fraud were bogus and that the legal team he had assembled to verify the results to fight was a “clown”. show.” Jeffrey A. Rosen, who replaced Mr. Barr, also refused to follow Mr. Trump’s orders to use the machinery of the Justice Department to overturn the election.

Jeffrey B. Clark, the acting chief of the civil division, was the only senior Justice Department official to embrace Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn President Biden’s victory. Mr. Clark had a relatively low profile, but in the frenetic post-election period, Mr. Trump identified him as his most important ally within the department. Mr. Trump seriously considered firing Mr. Rosen and putting Mr. Clark in charge.