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Chris Krebs Just Sued the Trump Lawyer Who Called For His Execution

The lawsuit says Krebs' 10-year-old son asked: “Daddy’s going to get executed?”
Christopher Krebs, President Trump's former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called the presidential election "the most secure in American history."
Christopher Krebs, President Trump's former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called the presidential election "the most secure in American history." (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

Chris Krebs, the former Trump administration cybersecurity chief, has filed a lawsuit against a Trump campaign lawyer who called for his execution on television.

Joe diGenova, part of Trump’s so-called “elite strike force” legal team that has racked up dozens of failed lawsuits in recent weeks, was speaking about Krebs in an interview on Newsmax on Dec. 1, the day after the former cybersecurity chief appeared on a “60 Minutes” episode where he defended the integrity of the election.

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“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 said in the interview on Newsmax, the pro-Trump TV channel.

Krebs, who was fired by Trump last month after he called the presidential election “the most secure in American history,” filed the lawsuit against the lawyer on Tuesday in Maryland, accusing him and the Trump campaign of defamation and the infliction of emotional distress, the New York Times first reported.

The lawsuit says Krebs received death threats in tweets and emails calling him a traitor, following the broadcast of diGenova’s comments. It also says Krebs’ 10-year-old son asked about the reports, saying: “Daddy’s going to get  executed?”

But the lawsuit, which seeks monetary damages and the removal of the threatening video from the Newsmax archives, is also accusing the president and his legal team, together with Newsmax, of engaging in “a calculated and pernicious conspiracy” to defame and injure Krebs and other members of the Republican Party who have stood up against the president’s baseless claims of fraud.

“Newsmax, the campaign, and DiGenova have a symbiotic relationship,” the lawsuit says. “Newsmax disseminates and amplifies the campaign’s and DiGenova’s attacks on perceived political threats and allegations of election stealing, which pleases viewers, prompts endorsements from President Trump, increases ratings, supports the political goals of the campaign, and helps raise more money from duped supporters.”

The lawsuit mentions specifically Trump’s attacks on Governors Doug Ducey of Arizona and Brian Kemp of Georgia.