Trump Lawyer Says Krebs Should Be ‘Taken Out at Dawn and Shot’ for Defending Election

Trump campaign lawyer Joe diGenova declared Monday that the Trump administration’s former cybersecurity chief deserves to be put to death for claiming that the presidential election was the “most secure” in the country’s history.

President Trump fired Chris Krebs, his head of cybersecurity, earlier this month after Krebs disputed Trump’s claim that the 2020 election was rigged against him. Krebs found himself at odds with the president after he called the election the “most secure in United States history.”

“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,” diGenova, who is also a former U.S. Attorney, said during an appearance on the Howie Carr show, broadcast on Newsmax, in comments first reported by The Bulwark.

On Tuesday, diGenova said his remarks were not meant to be taken literally and were meant as a joke.

“It was obvious that my remarks were sarcastic and made in jest,” diGenova said in a statement published by the Trump campaign. “I, of course, wish Mr. Krebs no harm. This was hyperbole in a political discourse.”

Before he was fired by Trump in a tweet, Krebs had served as the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security since November, 2018.