Trump signs order directing DOJ to probe critics Miles Taylor, Chris Krebs

President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday directing the Justice Department to investigate two officials from his first administration who have become some of his harshest critics.

The order revokes the security clearances and orders a Justice Department probe for Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, and Chris Krebs, a Homeland cybersecurity official.

The order says the two critics could be under investigation for allegedly leaking classified materials.

“I think he’s guilty of treason if you want to know the truth,” the president said of Mr. Taylor.

Mr. Taylor was the anonymous author of The New York Times Op-Ed article in 2018 in which he described Mr. Trump as “impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective.” The op-ed roiled Washington and set off a hunt for his identity.

He was also the anonymous author of “A Warning,” a book he wrote the next year that described Mr. Trump as an “undisciplined” and “amoral” leader, whose abuse of power threatened the foundations of American democracy.

Mr. Taylor confirmed that he was the author of both the book and opinion article in a lengthy statement in 2020.

“I have no idea who this guy was,” Mr. Trump said after signing the order.

“I barely remember him. He was somebody who went out and wrote a book and said all sorts of terrible things – all lies,” Mr. Trump said. “It’s like a traitor, like spying.”

Mr. Trump called the book “a work of fiction.”

Mr. Krebs openly dismissed claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. He led Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, (CISA) which launched a “Rumor Control” website aimed at debunking Mr. Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud.

A CISA panel shortly after the election declared the election “the most secure in American history.”