Trump Signed Orders Naming Two Critics, and One Left His Job a Week Later

Trump's Order Faulted Krebs for Rejecting the Stolen-Election Claim

On April 9, 2025, Donald Trump signed two presidential memoranda, each naming a former official who had challenged him: Christopher Krebs and Miles Taylor.¹² The orders reached past the two men: they told agencies to suspend the security clearances of people at organizations associated with them.¹² One week later, Krebs left the company Trump had named.³⁴ Taylor said he stepped away from his consulting work, and that Trump supporters threatened him and his family, including his wife and baby daughter.⁵

This was retaliation through federal investigative power: Trump made named critics the subjects of presidential orders and extended the pressure to their professional circles.¹²

Krebs led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, CISA, during Trump's first term.¹ Trump's memorandum accused him and the agency of coercing social-media platforms to suppress conservative viewpoints.¹ Among the misconduct it alleged was that Krebs had rejected the claim that the 2020 election was stolen.¹

Presidential Memorandum on Christopher Krebs¹

Similarly, Krebs, through CISA, falsely and baselessly denied that the 2020 election was rigged and stolen, including by inappropriately and categorically dismissing widespread election malfeasance and serious vulnerabilities with voting machines.

The order did more than accuse. Trump told agencies to revoke Krebs's active security clearance and to suspend active clearances held by people at associated entities, expressly including his employer, SentinelOne.¹ Both memoranda made the suspensions pending a review of whether the clearances were consistent with the national interest.¹² Trump also directed the Attorney General and the Homeland Security Secretary to review Krebs's activities and six years of CISA's work, then report to him with recommendations.¹

On April 16, Krebs announced he was leaving SentinelOne, calling it "my decision, and mine alone" and saying he needed to fight outside the company.³ SentinelOne said fewer than 10 of its employees held clearances the order affected and expected no material business impact.⁴ Even so, the President had attached consequences for other employees to his accusations against one former official.¹

It did not end with the clearances. On May 2, NBC News reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had confirmed a federal investigation of Krebs and said it had disqualified him from Global Entry, the expedited airport-clearance program.⁶ DHS did not name the investigating agencies or the allegations.⁶

Taylor Stepped Away From Consulting After the Second Order

Taylor had criticized the administration anonymously and then publicly.² Trump's companion memorandum accused him of publishing classified conversations and called such conduct potentially treasonous and a possible violation of the Espionage Act.² It ordered a review of his government service and directed suspension of any active security clearances held by Taylor and by people at associated entities, including the University of Pennsylvania.²

On June 5, 2025, Taylor told CBS News he had stepped away from tech consulting because employing him could expose a company to government scrutiny.⁵ He said Trump supporters threatened and doxxed him and his family after the order, including violent threats against his wife and baby daughter, and that he had struggled to find lawyers but eventually secured representation.⁵ He denied leaking classified material.⁵

Trump Named His Targets and Said Why

Trump called named adversaries guilty before prosecutors had their answer.⁷⁸ On July 22, 2025, asked whom the Justice Department (DOJ) should target over Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's disclosures about the Russia investigation, he named Obama, Biden, James Comey, James Clapper and John Brennan.⁷⁹ He said why.⁷

Remarks and exchange with reporters⁷

after what they did to me, and whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people.

The next day, DOJ announced a Strike Force to assess Gabbard's disclosures, and Attorney General Pam Bondi promised a full investigation.⁹ The release named the disclosures, not Obama.⁹

The same day he named those targets, Trump said Senator Adam Schiff had committed mortgage fraud and that investigators had him a "hundred percent"; he also claimed he deliberately stayed out of the matter.⁷ A Fannie Mae summary dated July 14 said investigators had examined five of Schiff's loans and found a pattern of possible occupancy misrepresentation.¹⁰⁸ It also recorded that his Maryland home was correctly designated a second home in 2020 and that all five loans had been paid.¹⁰

On October 23, NBC reported that after months of investigation DOJ prosecutors in Maryland had not found sufficient evidence to charge Schiff, according to four people familiar with the inquiry.⁸ Investigators were still seeking more, and no final charging decision had been made at that date.⁸

Trump had not waited. In September, NBC News reported, he publicly urged Bondi to act against Schiff, Comey and Letitia James, and called them guilty.⁸

On February 3, 2026, CNN reported that a DOJ review found Ed Martin, an official pursuing Trump's targets, had shared secret grand jury material from the Schiff case with unauthorized people, which CNN reported helped lead to his removal as head of the Weaponization Working Group.¹¹ Todd Blanche, a senior DOJ official, denied there were current misconduct investigations into Martin, and CNN reported that DOJ had not determined whether a law was broken.¹¹

Comey was indicted on a case presented by Lindsey Halligan.¹² The judge who later dismissed it recorded how she got the job: after her predecessor's departure, Trump publicly said he had fired him, insisted there was a great case, praised Halligan and demanded action from Bondi; less than 48 hours later, Bondi appointed Halligan interim U.S. Attorney.¹² On November 24, 2025, Judge Cameron McGowan Currie dismissed the indictment because Halligan had been unlawfully appointed and lacked authority to present it; the dismissal left new charges possible and decided the prosecutor's authority, not Comey's guilt.¹² ABC News reported that Comey was separately indicted in North Carolina on April 28, 2026 over an Instagram photograph of seashells arranged as "86 47", which prosecutors alleged threatened Trump.¹³

On July 22, 2026, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan referred former special counsel Jack Smith to DOJ for possible prosecution, alleging he misled Congress, which Ranking Democrat Jamie Raskin disputed.¹⁴¹⁵ The next morning, Trump shared a report that the House panel had urged DOJ to prosecute Smith, writing "Justice at last???".¹⁶

A Trump Appointee Resisted, and Lost His Job

Todd Gilbert, a former Republican speaker of the Virginia House and Trump's choice as interim U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, resigned in August 2025.¹⁷ Talking Points Memo, reporting the New York Times's account, said Gilbert had told DOJ superiors that evidence did not justify a grand jury investigation into alleged mishandling of classified Russia-investigation records.¹⁷

DOJ officials demanded that Gilbert replace his deputy, Zachary Lee, the report said.¹⁷ Lee was demoted, but senior DOJ officials suspected Gilbert was still primarily consulting him, the report said.¹⁷ They treated Lee as a Biden holdover, though he had been hired under George W. Bush and promoted during Trump's first term.¹⁷ Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche offered Gilbert more resources to pursue the investigation.¹⁷⁸ When Gilbert still resisted, he was told to resign or be fired.¹⁷ Gilbert resigned, and Lee left the office.¹⁷

The campaign against the officials Trump had named continued into 2026: on September 14 of that year, CBS News reported that Brennan had been subpoenaed to testify before a Florida grand jury on October 15.¹⁸ CBS also reported that DOJ opposed Brennan's request for court intervention because he had not been indicted or charged; the judge took the arguments under advisement without ruling from the bench.¹⁸

The Strongest Defense Is Executive Authority

The strongest defense is that presidents direct executive law enforcement, remove executive officers, and investigate suspected crimes even when the suspects are political opponents.¹⁹²⁰²¹ In Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court held in 2024 that a president has absolute criminal immunity for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority, including discussions with DOJ officials about investigations and prosecutions.²¹ It also held that courts cannot examine motives when classifying official acts.²¹ Courts require strong proof that prosecutors singled someone out for an impermissible reason, and do not presume ordinary pretrial charging decisions punish the exercise of a legal right.²²²³ The April 9 orders required clearance actions consistent with existing law, and neither expressly commanded a prosecution.¹²

The defense has a concrete success. On October 16, 2025, DOJ obtained an 18-count classified-information indictment against former national security adviser John Bolton, a Trump critic.²⁴¹³ He pleaded guilty to one count on June 26, 2026.²⁵ As of October 10, his sentencing was scheduled for December 4, 2026.²⁵ ABC News reported that career prosecutors investigated the Bolton case and that it began before Trump took office.¹³

Removal alone is a weak basis for impeachment: the Senate acquitted Andrew Johnson in 1868 after he removed Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and the Supreme Court later called the statute used against him invalid.²⁶²⁷²⁰

Criminal immunity protects a president against prosecution; it does not decide whether he abused public trust, which Congress judges through impeachment.²¹¹⁹²⁸

The Repeated Conduct Is an Abuse of Public Trust

Article II, Section 4 makes high crimes and misdemeanors grounds for impeachment, and Hamilton described impeachable offenses as abuses or violations of public trust.¹⁹²⁸ In 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved an impeachment article accusing Richard Nixon of misusing the FBI, Secret Service and other executive personnel for purposes unrelated to lawful government functions; the full House never adopted it because Nixon resigned before the vote.²⁹³⁰

Trump used presidential orders to make critics and their associates targets.¹² He publicly demanded action against adversaries he named.⁸⁷ His Justice Department pushed out a prosecutor who resisted an investigation he judged unsupported.¹⁷ Krebs left his job, and Taylor described stepping away from consulting work and threats by Trump supporters against him and his family.³⁵ This is retaliation through public power: the government imposed costs on dissenters while the President demanded the cases he wanted.¹²⁸¹⁷ Congress should treat that conduct as an abuse of public trust warranting impeachment.¹⁹²⁸²⁹