Chris Krebs, the former cybersecurity official in President Trump’s first term whom the president recently targeted for investigation because he had said that the 2020 election had been conducted securely, learned this week that his membership in a program giving travelers expedited status had been revoked.
Mr. Krebs received an email on Wednesday alerting him that his status in the Global Entry program had changed, prompting him to log into his account. The program, run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, lets people deemed low-risk re-enter the country faster than normal travelers.
Mr. Krebs told CNN, which reported the news earlier, that he learned his membership had been rescinded after he logged into the program. He confirmed to The New York Times that he had discovered his membership had been revoked.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
But the change in Mr. Krebs’s status came three weeks after Mr. Trump signed a presidential directive on camera from the Oval Office, telling Attorney General Pam Bondi to search for evidence that Mr. Krebs may have provided classified information to anyone not authorized to receive it, which is a federal crime.
Mr. Krebs was targeted by Mr. Trump for contradicting baseless claims by some Trump allies and advisers that the electronic voting machines in the 2020 race that Mr. Trump lost to President Biden had been compromised. Mr. Krebs, who led the agency tasked with protecting election machinery from foreign interference, has said the election was conducted securely.
Mr. Krebs was also stripped of his security clearance. The president’s actions have had immediate repercussions for Mr. Krebs. A week after Mr. Trump’s directive, Mr. Krebs resigned from the cybersecurity firm he had joined, to focus on fighting the investigation.
Since taking the presidency for a second time, Mr. Trump has been systematically working through targets for retribution in some form or another, most notably law firms that he has issued or threatened to issue executive orders against.
But the directive related to Mr. Krebs was the first time since taking office again that Mr. Trump had publicly ordered investigations into individuals. Miles Taylor, a Department of Homeland Security official in the first Trump administration who has been deeply critical of Mr. Trump, was targeted along with Mr. Krebs.
Earlier this week, over 40 cybersecurity experts signed an open letter condemning the “political persecution” of Mr. Krebs.
