Cybersecurity leaders decry ‘political persecution’ of Chris Krebs in a letter to the President

President Trump appointed Krebs as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in November 2018, only to fire him in November 2020 after Krebs publicly contradicted Trump’s claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 presidential election, affirming it was “the most secure in American history.”

On his first day back in office in January 2025, President Trump revoked security clearances for 51 former intelligence officials. Subsequently, on April 9, a presidential executive order specifically targeted Krebs and SentinelOne, where Krebs had been serving as Chief Intelligence and Public Policy Officer.

The letter supporting Krebs is signed by a group of experts, including Harold Abelson, MIT Professor of Computer Science; David L. Dill, Donald E. Knuth Professor Emeritus in the School of Engineering at Stanford University; and Joseph Lorenzo Hall, Distinguished Technologist at the Internet Society.