Washington — Chris Krebs, who led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during President Trump's first term, has had his membership in the Global Entry traveler program revoked, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday.
The move comes after Mr. Trump issued a memorandum last month that targeted Krebs for defending the integrity of the 2020 election, which the president has continued to baselessly claim was rigged against him. The directive instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard to suspend security clearances held by Krebs and people working at entities associated with him, including at the cybersecurity company where he worked.
Krebs, a CBS News cybersecurity expert and analyst, told the Wall Street Journal last month that he was resigning from that company, SentinelOne.
Mr. Trump's memo also directed his administration to investigate Krebs' activities from his time in the federal government, including at CISA.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told CBS News that Krebs is "under active investigation by law enforcement agencies. That is a fact disqualifying him for Global Entry." CNN first reported that Krebs' Global Entry membership had been rescinded.
Global Entry is a program run by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection that allows expedited clearance for travelers arriving in the U.S. who are pre-approved and low-risk. A person may not be eligible for the Global Entry program if they are the subject of an ongoing federal, state or local law enforcement agency, according to CBP.
Krebs was fired by Mr. Trump in 2020 after he refuted the president's unsupported claims that the election was rife was widespread voter fraud. CISA had released a joint statement days after the Nov. 3, 2020, election saying that it was the "most secure in American history" and that there was "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."
In announcing his decision to remove Krebs from his role as CISA director, Mr. Trump claimed the statement was "highly inaccurate." While the president and his campaign mounted dozens of lawsuits challenging the integrity of the 2020 election, none were successful and claims of widespread fraud were refuted, including by Mr. Trump's former attorney general, Bill Barr.
Still, Mr. Trump has continued to claim that the 2020 election was stolen from him and has undertaken numerous actions to take revenge against his political adversaries and critics now that he is back in the White House. In addition to Krebs, the president has signed executive orders punishing major law firms that employed former special counsel Robert Mueller and members of his team, even though they no longer work there.
He has also directed his administration to take away security clearances held by former Vice President Kamala Harris and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, his opponents in the 2024 and 2016 elections, respectively, and Biden, as well as members of his administration.
Like the memo targeting Krebs, Mr. Trump issued another punishing Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official who authored a book and op-ed under a pseudonym that criticized the president during his first term as "impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective."
Melissa Quinn