The New York Times is reporting that special counsel Jack Smith's office is zeroing in on former President Donald Trump's decision to fire his own administration's cybersecurity official after he refuted claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen."
According to the Times, subpoenas have been issued to staff members who were potentially involved in the firing of Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who enraged Trump by declaring that there had been no security breaches that would have compromised the results of the 2020 election.
"The investigators appear focused on Mr. Trump’s state of mind around the firing of Mr. Krebs, as well as on establishing a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021," writes the Times. "The latest subpoenas, issued roughly two weeks ago, went to officials in the personnel office."
Krebs told the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attacks on the United States Capitol building that he believed that former Trump officials questioned his loyalty to the president and targeted him for termination in the wake of his assertion that the 2020 election was legitimate.
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The Times' own reporting adds that "a small group of Trump loyalists, led by Mr. Trump’s former personal aide, John McEntee, were on a mission to find and fire people perceived as disloyal to Mr. Trump within the federal bureaucracy" and that "they had fingered the outspoken Mr. Krebs as among the ranks of the disloyal."
Sources also tell the Times that Smith's team is seeking information about how Trump officials approached the United States Department of Justice in lobbying for help to declare the results of the 2020 election fraudulent, despite the fact that there was no evidence to back up such an assertion.
