I'll sue, says fired elections security chief Chris Krebs after Donald Trump's lawyer Joe diGenova demands he is 'shot at dawn'
Ousted cybersecurity chief Christopher Krebs indicated Tuesday that he could pursue legal action against Donald Trump's campaign attorney who suggested he be killed for his comments related to the election.
'The way I look at it is that we're a nation of laws, and I plan to take advantage of those laws,' Krebs told NBC News' 'Today' show on Tuesday morning. 'I've got an exceptional team of lawyers that win in court, and I think they're probably going to be busy.'
'We're taking a look at all our available opportunities,' he said.
'It's certainly more dangerous language, more dangerous behavior,' Krebs said of Joe diGenova's comments.
diGenova is one of President Donald Trump's lawyers in charge of his campaign's efforts to overturn the presidential election results. He called Krebs a 'moron' and said he should be 'taken out at dawn and shot.'
Fired Cybersecurity Chief Chis Krebs said Tuesday he could sue one of Donald Trump's campaign lawyers after he suggested Krebs be killed. 'The way I look at it is that we're a nation of laws, and I plan to take advantage of those laws,' he said
Trump's campaign lawyer Joe diGenova (pictured with wife Victoria Toensing) said Monday that Krebs should be 'taken out at dawn and shot' for saying this election was the 'most secure in U.S. history'
Krebs was fired last month from his post as director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency for contradicting Trump's election-related claims about the election.
On Monday's episode of 'The Howie Carr Show', which airs on right-leaning Newsmax, diGenova criticized Krebs for his claims related to election security, which ultimately got him ousted.
'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,' diGenova said. 'He should be drawn and quartered. Taken out at dawn and shot.'
Krebs said, when asked if he was worried about his own safety in the wake of diGenova's comments, that he is 'not going to give them the benefit of knowing how I'm reacting to this.'
Specifically, diGenova took aim at Krebs' conclusion in a November statement from CISA claiming this election was the 'most secure in United States history'.
The president fired Krebs, a lifelong Republican, via tweet on November 17 after the former federal cybersecurity chief declared the election to be secure despite the president's repeated claims of election fraud.
Krebs had served as the CISA director at DHS since November 2018.
Krebs was ousted as director of the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency last month after his comments went against Trump's claims that the presidential election was riddled with 'fraud'
In the days before his dismissal, Krebs expressed he expected to be fired by the White House due to his efforts to debunk disinformation being spread about the security of the U.S. election.
Krebs appeared on 60 Minutes Sunday night and further angered President Trump.
'.@60Minutes never asked us for a comment about their ridiculous, one sided story on election security, which is an international joke,' Trump tweeted immediately after the segment aired.
'Our 2020 Election, from poorly rated Dominion to a Country FLOODED with unaccounted for Mail-In ballots, was probably our least secure EVER!'
Krebs, however, insisted that the election was indeed the most secure ever, and said that Trump and Rudy Giuliani's suggestions otherwise were 'dangerous'.
'I think that we should be celebrating the successes of making the 2020 election the most secure election in modern history,' Krebs said.
'I think that the administration deserves credit. I think that President Trump's administration deserves credit for securing the 2020 election.'
He said last week's press conference by Giuliani and his colleagues, at the Republican National Committee headquarters, saddened and angered him.
'It was upsetting because what I saw was an apparent attempt to undermine confidence in the election, to confuse people, to scare people,' said Krebs.
'It's not me, it's not just CISA. It's the tens of thousands of election workers out there that had been working nonstop, 18-hour days, for months. They're getting death threats for trying to carry out one of our core democratic institutions, an election.
'And that was, again, to me, a press conference that I just - it didn't make sense.
'What it was actively doing was undermining democracy. And that's dangerous.'
Krebs said that Trump's allegations of mass voter fraud were 'farcical'.
'We can go on and on with all the farcical claims alleging interference in the 2020 election, but the proof is in the ballots,' he said.
'The recounts are consistent with the initial count, and to me, that's further evidence, that's confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected, and the American people should have 100 per cent confidence in their vote.'
And he strongly criticized the president's allegations of voting machines being manipulated by foreign countries, describing the accusations as 'baseless'.
While Krebs drew widespread bipartisan praise for his handling of the election, he drew the ire of the Trump White House over a website run by CISA dubbed 'Rumor Control', which debunks misinformation about the election
Biden won the election with 306 Electoral College votes to Trump's 232. He leads Trump by over six million in the popular vote.
Trump and his lawyers continue to allege, without evidence, that the election was stolen through widespread fraud and that Trump is the winner.