Jack Smith zeroes in on Trump's firing of his own 'disloyal' cybersecurity official: NYT
The New York Times is reporting that special counsel Jack Smith's office is zeroing in on former President Donald Trump's decision to fire his own administration's cybersecurity official after he refuted claims that the 2020 election had been "stolen."
According to the Times, subpoenas have been issued to staff members who were potentially involved in the firing of Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency who enraged Trump by declaring that there had been no security breaches that would have compromised the results of the 2020 election.
"The investigators appear focused on Mr. Trump’s state of mind around the firing of Mr. Krebs, as well as on establishing a timeline of events leading up to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021," writes the Times. "The latest subpoenas, issued roughly two weeks ago, went to officials in the personnel office."
Krebs told the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attacks on the United States Capitol building that he believed that former Trump officials questioned his loyalty to the president and targeted him for termination in the wake of his assertion that the 2020 election was legitimate.
The Times' own reporting adds that "a small group of Trump loyalists, led by Mr. Trump’s former personal aide, John McEntee, were on a mission to find and fire people perceived as disloyal to Mr. Trump within the federal bureaucracy" and that "they had fingered the outspoken Mr. Krebs as among the ranks of the disloyal."
Sources also tell the Times that Smith's team is seeking information about how Trump officials approached the United States Department of Justice in lobbying for help to declare the results of the 2020 election fraudulent, despite the fact that there was no evidence to back up such an assertion.
Agence France-PresseThat's what that suggests': Ex-prosecutor theorizes that Trump wanted Mar-a-Lago surveillance video tampered with
After a bombshell report that a Donald Trump staffer questioned a Mar-a-Lago IT worker about the functioning of security cameras at the club – specifically how long footage stayed available – former federal prosecutor Shan Wu theorized that the only reason they would care is if they were worried about something being seen.
Speaking to CNN's John King on Wednesday, Wu first addressed recent New York Times reports that special counsel Jack Smith is interviewing Trump's former cyber-security chief Chris Krebs. He was the aide that called the 2020 election the safest in history as the former president mounted a conspiracy campaign that the election had been stolen from him. Krebs was subsequently fired via tweet.
Wu said that reasons Smith, who is investigating classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago and Trump's part in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, might be looking at Krebs include trying to establish Trump's state of mind, and looking for a link to some of the financial aspects of Jan. 6.
"Money and power always entwine," Wu said. "Perhaps the next best thing is to make money off the fraud that you're pushing out there. So, I think they are looking at both of those. And certainly, Krebs could be — the firing offense — would be valuable not only to the efforts by Trump to stay in power but also to the continued fundraising that we know is being looked at carefully too."
But it was the Mar-a-Lago piece of the story that could be the most damaging. The Washington Post reported Tuesday on the incident with the security cameras at the former president's country club.
"The employee allegedly had a conversation with an IT worker at the site about how the security cameras worked and how long images remained stored in the system," the Post reported, citing a person familiar with the investigation.
Reports earlier this month indicated Smith might be looking for evidence that Trump tampered with the security cameras, CNN reported.
"You're not really concerned about retention policies unless where there's documents, video or audio you want to go away," Wu explained. "That's what that suggests. Why would you ask about that if you're not worried about the surveillance being there?"
The calendar the Post cited showed the conversation was in mid-July 2022, more than a month after the FBI visited Mar-a-Lago to collect some documents on June 2. It was a few weeks later, on Aug. 8, 2022, that the FBI executed a search warrant.
A report from the week following the 2022 search said the feds obtained surveillance videos that showed aides moving boxes around in the days before the search.
Watch:'This is a lot of evidence': Mueller prosecutor predicts Trump indictment is 'imminent'
"A hefty wall" of evidence has already been built against former President Donald Trump by special counsel Jack Smith - and more keeps coming, a former FBI general counsel said Wednesday.
Andrew Weissmann, who was a senior prosecutor on Robert Mueller's team, discussed new reports about Smith's investigation with Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC.
A Wednesday New York Times report cited Smith interviewing Donald Trump's former cyber-security chief Chris Krebs. He was the aide that called the 2020 election the safest in history as the former president mounted a conspiracy campaign that the election had been stolen from him. Krebs was subsequently fired via tweet.
Weissmann explained that Krebs is going to be a perfect witness for the prosecutors – who are investigating classified documents found at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and delving into Trump's part in trying to overturn the 2020 election results – because he will have facts and data.
"He's going to talk about, as a Republican appointed by Donald Trump, giving facts saying there was no fraud in the election. And on the other side, there are no facts," said Weissmann. "So, it's just a wonderful example. You can add it to Brad Raffensperger; you can add it to Mike Pence. You can add it to the president seeking to get rid of Jeff Rosen, the acting attorney general, and replace him with Jeff Clark.
"It's all in place, and this is one really good building block. And when you give that litany, you go, this is going to be quite a hefty wall. This is a lot of evidence."
Wallace said that Krebs joins a list of people that worked with Trump and interacted with him directly who have said that he didn't win the 2020 election.
Former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal, also speaking with Wallace, recalled former Attorney General Bill Barr calling Trump's post-election advisers a "clown show." Barr, he said, would be an expert.
"Barr knows a lot about clown shows," explained Katyal. "That's what I think Smith is doing. He's trying to figure out why is, it in the world, that you would get rid of the one guy who actually talks sense. You just played the clip. He doesn't sound like your typical Trump person. He sounds like someone who plays it straight. That's exactly what Trump's problem was."
Wallace asked Weissmann about Smith's two cases – the Jan. 6 effort and the documents scandal – and the division between the two. Weissmann said that both cases will be brought and that the Jan. 6 case would be strong based on the information that they've collected. But he said the Jan. 6 case is much more complicated than the documents case.
Katyal summed it up by saying Trump can't have X, Trump took X, Trump hid X, Trump refused to give X back, Trump is indicted for it. Whereas the fraud for the Jan. 6 case involves a lot of pieces.
"I somewhat disagreed with the attorney general when he said this is the most massive investigation we've ever undertaken," said Weissmann. "I mean, this isn't. It's just, it's big, but it's not terribly complicated. The evidence is — this is the kind of evidence when you're a prosecutor, you're sort of like dying for this because there's so much proof.
"Mar-a-Lago is just a much more discreet set of facts. You still have to tie everything down, you have to interview all of the witnesses. But that is one, if I were a betting man to answer these kinds of questions, I would say Mar-a-Lago is going to go first. And that seems to me, I mean, I hate to use the phrase because Fani Willis has used it, it does seem imminent to me. And I think that Jack Smith will feel the pressure to bring it -- not because he wants to rush it, but I think the American people are entitled to know the answer to whether a candidate for office has committed a state and federal crimes."
After Weissmann spoke, CNN dropped a bombshell report that there was a tape of Donald Trump speaking to biographers for Mark Meadows in which he revealed he took classified documents from the White House that involved a potential attack on Iran.
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