Trump Campaign Lawyer Suggests Executing Ex-Cybersecurity Staffer Chris Krebs: Should Be 'Taken Out at Dawn and Shot'

An attorney for President Donald Trump's reelection efforts said Monday that Christopher Krebs, the former cybersecurity chief who was fired by Trump in November, should be "shot" for suggesting that the 2020 election was secure. Joseph diGenova made the jarring claims during an appearance on The Howie Carr Show, which airs on Newsmax. DiGenova is part of the team of lawyers, led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, working to overturn the election results, bringing forth numerous allegations of voter fraud. Many of those lawsuits, however, have been dismissed due to a lack of evidence.

Speaking with Carr, diGenova called Krebs an "idiot" and a "moron" before going on to suggest that he should be "shot." According to Forbes, he said that "anybody who thinks the election went well, like that idiot Krebs who used to be the head of cybersecurity, that guy is a class A moron. He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot." Carr did not challenge the remarks, and diGenova went on to list instances of voter irregularities, such as ballot "dumps" and vote-rigging, of which there has been no evidence to support.

DiGenova's remarks quickly drew condemnation, with the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower group, issuing a statement in which they condemned "the President's attorney for threatening a whistleblower." Louis Clark, Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of Government Accountability Project, added that "threats like these trigger an avalanche of them. They terrorize other whistleblowers into silence. It's behavior befitting a mob attorney."

DiGenova's controversial comments came just a day after Krebs stood by the statement that resulted in his termination. Appearing on CBS News' 60 Minutes on Sunday, his first interview since he was fired by Trump via tweet, Krebs said that "we did a good job. We did it right. I'd do it a thousand times over." He said, "I stand by" his original statement, in which he said, in a memo, that "there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

The Sunday interview immediately drew the criticism of the president, who disputed Krebs' claims at the time of his firing when he wrote in a tweet the statement "was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud." Taking to Twitter just after the interview aired, Trump claimed that the 2020 election security was "an international joke" and the election "was probably our least secure EVER," despite there being no evidence of widespread voter fraud.