Cybersecurity Official Fired by Trump Says U.S. Election Was Secure

In a statement, Mr. Krebs cited postelection claims about hackers, malicious algorithms that flipped votes and election equipment vendors’ foreign ties; he called them “wild and baseless” and technically inaccurate. He told the members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that continuing to question the outcome of the election is “ultimately corrosive to the institutions that support elections.”

Mr. Trump and some Republicans have alleged widespread fraud in the voting, and they have questioned President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory. While election officials say isolated cases of fraud and clerical errors sometimes occur and are often caught and corrected, Attorney General William Barr said earlier this month that no evidence has emerged of fraud on a scale that could have led to a different outcome this election.

Mr. Trump fired Mr. Krebs after he endorsed a statement from a group of federal and state election officials that the Nov. 3 election was the most secure in U.S. history. Mr. Trump took aim again Wednesday, tweeting: “ Chris Krebs was totally excoriated and proven wrong at the Senate Hearing on the Fraudulent 2020 Election.”

During the hearing, Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), the committee chairman and often a defender of Mr. Trump, described alleged election irregularities and said he asked his staff to find out as much as they could about how elections are administered and security controls, though he said the time to do so was limited.

One question, Mr. Johnson said, is “whether the level of fraud would alter the outcome of the election.” He added, “This year, in dozens of court cases, through the certification process in each state and by the Electoral College vote, the conclusion has collectively been reached that it would not.”

Sen. Gary Peters (D., Mich.), the top Democrat on the committee, criticized the hearing. “Whether intended or not, this hearing gives a platform to conspiracy theories and lies, and it’s a destructive exercise that has no place in the United States Senate,” Mr. Peters said.

Mr. Krebs said CISA’s role was to secure voting systems and to do so worked with states, which administer elections. He said one way the agency combated what it saw as misinformation during the election was by creating a website called “Rumor Control.” The website fact-checked viral claims, including some promoted by Mr. Trump.

Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) claimed that fraud happened anyway. “The election in many ways was stolen, and the only way it will be fixed is by in the future reinforcing the laws,” he said.

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D., N.H.) asked Mr. Krebs if he was ever asked by any Trump administration official to refrain from debunking false information about the election while he was CISA’s director.

Mr. Krebs said he wasn’t directly approached about the fact-checking statements that the agency had published on its website, but “I understand my staff was.” Mr. Krebs said he told his staff that “if anybody had an issue with it, they needed to come talk to me.”

—Lindsay Wise contributed to this article.

Write to Alexa Corse at [email protected]