Ex-CISA chief: Elected officials must 'show true leadership' in the face of attacks from 'domestic interests'

Christopher Krebs, former director of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the United States Department of Homeland Security, may no longer be employed with the agency but he is still speaking out and defending American democracy.

In an editorial published by CNN leading up to Krebs' testimony before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, he pushed back against the voter fraud claims yet again. Krebs noted that initial intelligence reports suggested outside interference from Russia would likely be the greatest threat to the 2020 election.

"I believe, then and now, that the Russian Federation attempted to interfere in our 2016 election to disparage Hillary Clinton to the advantage of then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, as laid out in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment," Krebs wrote.

But in 2020, it was the post-election period that shed light on the heightened, domestic spread of misinformation. Krebs wrote that an uptick in "wild and baseless claims of domestic origin" began circulating at an accelerated rate shortly after Election Day. However, he also made it clear that none of the unfounded claims and conspiracy theories aligned with the department's intelligence.

"Unfortunately, as we moved on from November 3, we began to see wild and baseless claims of domestic origin, about hackers and malicious algorithms that flipped the vote in states across the country, singling out election equipment vendors for having ties to deceased foreign dictators," Krebs said, adding, "None of these claims matched up with the intelligence we had, based on reporting from election officials or how elections actually work in this country."

Krebs went on to stress the importance of America's leaders upholding the country's democracy amid all "foreign and domestic" threats.

He concluded, "As foreign and domestic interests attack our democracy for political and financial gain, attempting to infiltrate American public opinion and confidence in our most sacred institutions, our elected representatives must now show true leadership in defending the people by defending the truth."

Read the full op-ed at CNN.