Christopher Krebs, the recently ousted former top U.S. cybersecurity official, hinted at possible legal action Tuesday after a lawyer for President Trump’s campaign said that he should be executed.
Trump campaign lawyer Joe diGenova said Monday that Mr. Krebs, the former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director, should be “drawn and quartered, taken out at dawn and shot.”
“It’s certainly more dangerous language, more dangerous behavior,” Mr. Krebs reacted on NBC’s “Today” show. “And the way I look at it is that we are a nation of laws. And I plan to take advantage of those laws. I’ve got an exceptional team of lawyers that win in court, and I think they’re probably going to be busy.”
Before he was fired by Mr. Trump via Twitter on Nov. 17, Mr. Krebs ran CISA, a component of the Department of Homeland Security, and its operations to protect and defend the recent U.S. elections.
Mr. Krebs has asserted the election was the most secure in U.S. history, but Mr. Trump maintains it was marred by fraud and said he fired the former CISA director for declaring otherwise.
The president’s reelection campaign is pursuing efforts to reverse his apparent loss to Democratic rival Joseph R. Biden, and Mr. diGenova, a former prosecutor, is among several lawyers involved.
“Anybody who thinks that this election went well, like that idiot Krebs, who used to be the head of cybersecurity at DHS, that guy, that guy is a class-A moron,” Mr. diGenova said Monday on Newsmax. “He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.”
Pressed for his response, Mr. Krebs said he and his lawyers are “taking a look at all of our available opportunities.”
Mr. Krebs, 43, CISA’s first director, held that position for two years before he was fired this month. He described himself in the interview Tuesday as a “lifelong Republican.”
Victoria Toensing, Mr. diGenova’s wife, released a statement attributed to her husband later Tuesday on Twitter in which he claimed his remarks were sarcastic and made in jest.
“I, of course, wish Mr. Krebs no harm. It was hyperbole during a political discourse,” the statement said.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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