Former top US cyber official sues Trump campaign, lawyer over threats

The former head of the US Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Agency, which was tasked with helping guard the 2020 US Presidential election from hackers, has filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s campaign and one of his lawyers after he made threatening remarks during a television interview, The New York Times reported.

The lawsuit accuses Trump’s lawyer, Joe diGenova, of a “pernicious conspiracy” against members of the Republican party who are “speaking truth and conscientiously performing their public duties” in the face of election fraud claims by the White House, according to the report.

Trump has made unsubstantiated claims of widespread electoral fraud and has been trying unsuccessfully to overturn the victory of Democrat Joe Biden. Trump’s campaign has challenged the outcome in court in multiple states while also pressing state officials, lawmakers and governors to throw the results out and declare Trump the winner.

The former official, Christopher Krebs, has been the target of death threats, according to the New York Times, which said it had reviewed a legal filing. It said the threats followed diGenova saying in an interview broadcast on conservative news network Newsmax that Krebs should be “drawn and quartered” or “shot at dawn” for stating that the recent election was the “most secure in American history.”

The lawsuit seeks monetary damages and for the clip of diGenova’s remarks on Newsmax to be removed.

A Trump campaign spokesman and diGenova did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Krebs’ lawyers also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.