Chris Krebs: The CISA Director Fired After the 2020 Election

In November 2020 the most senior cybersecurity official in the United States government put his name to a statement that the election had been "the most secure in American history." Five days later he was fired by tweet.

Chris Krebs had spent two years building CISA, the agency created to defend the country's elections, pipelines and power grids, and then spent 2020 testing it against the hardest year imaginable.

The firing wasn't the end of his fight with Donald Trump. In April 2025 the White House issued a memorandum with Krebs's name in its title, and he gave up a corporate job to answer it.

Chris Krebs at a Glance

• Krebs studied environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and took a law degree at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School.
• He did a first tour at the Department of Homeland Security advising on infrastructure protection, then ran Microsoft's US cybersecurity policy work.
• He returned to DHS in March 2017, was sworn in as Under Secretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate on June 15, 2018, and became the first director of CISA when the directorate was turned into an agency later that year.
• As director he led the federal push to secure the 2020 election and publicly debunked election rumors as they spread.
• On November 12, 2020, a CISA-led council declared the election the most secure in American history. On November 17, President Trump fired him.
• In January 2021 he and Alex Stamos founded Krebs Stamos Group, with SolarWinds as an early client. SentinelOne agreed to buy the firm in November 2023.
• On April 9, 2025, Trump signed a memorandum stripping Krebs's security clearance and ordering an investigation into him. A week later Krebs resigned from SentinelOne, saying the fight was his alone.
• By 2026 he was running the Krebs Group, co-hosting Risky Business's Wide World of Cyber and warning on CBS about AI-enabled attacks.

The Life of Chris Krebs

Krebs's Road to Washington

Christopher Krebs took a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences at the University of Virginia and a law degree at George Mason University, a combination that pointed him toward policy rather than code.

His first stint at the Department of Homeland Security came as senior adviser to the assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, where he worked on national and international risk management programs. He then spent years advising companies and governments on cybersecurity risk.

At Microsoft he joined the US government affairs team as director for cybersecurity policy, running the company's Washington work on cybersecurity and technology.

Building CISA

Krebs returned to DHS in March 2017 as senior counselor to the secretary. That August he was appointed assistant secretary for infrastructure protection, and with no permanent under secretary in place, he also ran the National Protection and Programs Directorate in an acting capacity.

President Trump nominated him to lead NPPD in February 2018, and he was sworn in on June 15, 2018. Later that year Congress turned the directorate into the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Krebs became CISA's first director.

The job covered civilian federal networks, federal facilities and the systemic risks to what the agency called national critical functions. The part the public would remember was elections.

Defending 2020

Krebs made election security CISA's signature mission, working with state and county officials, the people who actually run American elections, to harden their systems against foreign interference.

As the 2020 vote approached, the agency also took on rumors. Krebs became the government's most visible debunker of claims about hacked machines and switched votes, a role that put him in direct conflict with the president who'd appointed him.

On November 12, 2020, the election security councils that CISA coordinates issued a joint statement. "The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history," it said. "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

Fired by Tweet

The same day, Reuters reported that Krebs had told associates he expected to be fired. On November 17, 2020, Trump announced on Twitter that Krebs had been terminated, citing the agency's election assessment.

CISA leadership told employees not to lose focus. Krebs, meanwhile, went on 60 Minutes on November 29 to repeat that the vote had been secure and to take apart the rumors one by one. A few weeks later he was back before the public defending the agency's work again.

He'd later warn on Face the Nation that the country risked a "death spiral" of democracy if efforts to undermine elections continued.

Krebs Stamos Group

In January 2021 Krebs and Alex Stamos launched a consultancy, Krebs Stamos Group. One of its first jobs was helping SolarWinds clean up after the supply chain attack that'd just been uncovered.

In November 2023 SentinelOne agreed to acquire the firm. Krebs became the company's chief intelligence and public policy officer and president of PinnacleOne, its strategic advisory group.

The Memorandum

On April 9, 2025, President Trump signed a presidential memorandum titled "Addressing Risks from Chris Krebs and Government Censorship." It revoked any security clearance Krebs held, suspended clearances for people at entities associated with him, including SentinelOne, pending review, and ordered the attorney general and the homeland security secretary to review his conduct in government.

The memorandum alleged that under Krebs, CISA had "suppressed conservative viewpoints under the guise of combatting supposed disinformation." Krebs and his supporters rejected the characterization, and cybersecurity experts publicly urged the administration to abandon the investigation.

On April 16, 2025, Krebs resigned from SentinelOne. "This is my decision, and mine alone," he wrote. "This is my fight, not the company's."

In May, NBC News reported he was under federal investigation, and his Global Entry membership was revoked.

Krebs in 2026

Krebs didn't go quiet. By 2026 he was running his own firm, the Krebs Group, and appearing on CNBC to argue that AI needed a more rational policy footing in the United States.

In June 2026 he told CBS that an intelligence community warning about AI was "pretty alarming," and in July he was back on Face the Nation discussing election security as the administration cut election-focused federal staff.

He also found a second home in Byron Bay, Australia, at least on the audio feed: on Risky Business's Wide World of Cyber he dissects the biggest incidents of the moment with Patrick Gray and Alex Stamos.

Chris Krebs: Most Secure in American History

Krebs's job was to make a sentence true, and then to say it when it was. The sentence cost him his position, and five years later a memorandum tried to make him pay for it again.

He left a well-paid corporate role rather than let a company carry his fight, which tells you most of what you need to know about him.

The election was the most secure in American history. He still says so.