{"id":11317,"date":"2025-06-04T14:50:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T06:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=11317"},"modified":"2025-06-04T14:50:05","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T06:50:05","slug":"ex-homeland-security-official-taylor-fights-back-against-trumps-unprecedented-investigation-order","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=11317","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Homeland Security official Taylor fights back against Trump\u2019s \u2018unprecedented\u2019 investigation order"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A former Homeland Security official during President Donald Trump\u2019s first administration who authored an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president is calling on independent government watchdogs to investigate after Trump ordered the department to look into his government service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Miles Taylor, once chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, warned in an interview with The Associated Press of the far-reaching implications of Trump\u2019s April 9 memorandum, \u201cAddressing Risks Associated with an Egregious Leaker and Disseminator of Falsehoods,\u201d when it comes to suppressing criticism of the president. That memo accused Taylor of concocting stories to sell his book and directed the secretary of Homeland Security and other government agencies to look into Taylor and strip him of any security clearances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor sent a letter via email to inspectors general at the departments of Justice and Homeland Security on Tuesday. Later in the day, the White House dismissed the complaint, calling Taylor a \u201cbad-faith actor.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming on the same April day that Trump also ordered an investigation into Chris Krebs, a former top cybersecurity official, the dual memoranda illustrated how Trump has sought to use the powers of the presidency against his adversaries. Speaking to the AP, Taylor said the order targeting him sets a \u201cscary precedent\u201d and that\u2019s why he decided to call on the inspectors general to investigate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t commit any crime, and that\u2019s what\u2019s extraordinary about this. I can\u2019t think of any case where someone knows they\u2019re being investigated but has absolutely no idea what crime they allegedly committed. And it\u2019s because I didn\u2019t,\u201d Taylor said. He called it a \u201creally, really, really scary precedent to have set is that the president of the United States can now sign an order investigating any private citizen he wants, any critic, any foe, anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump has targeted adversaries since he took office
Since taking office again in January, Trump has stripped security clearances from a number of his opponents. But Trump\u2019s order for an investigation into Taylor, as well as Krebs, marked an escalation of his campaign of retribution in his second term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump fired Krebs, who directed the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in November 2020 after Krebs disputed the Republican president\u2019s unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud and vouched for the integrity of the 2020 election, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor left the first Trump administration in 2019. In the anonymous New York Times op-ed published in 2018, he described himself as part of a secret \u201cresistance\u201d to counter Trump\u2019s \u201cmisguided impulses.\u201d The op-ed\u2019s publication touched off a leak investigation in Trump\u2019s first White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor later published a book by the same name as the op-ed and then another book under his own name called \u201cBlowback,\u201d which warned about Trump\u2019s return to office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After signing the memorandum April 9, Trump said Taylor was likely \u201cguilty of treason.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a statement Tuesday, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Taylor betrayed the American people by \u201cdisclosing sensitive information through unauthorized methods\u201d and didn\u2019t deserve a security clearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMiles Taylor is a bad-faith actor who weaponized and abused his government position to prioritize his own ambition, personal notoriety, and monetary gain over keeping his constitutional oath,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter by Taylor\u2019s lawyer to the inspectors general calls Trump\u2019s actions \u201cunprecedented in American history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Memorandum does not identify any specific wrongdoing. Rather, it flagrantly targets Mr. Taylor for one reason alone: He dared to speak out to criticize the President,\u201d the letter reads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taylor\u2019s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the request to the inspectors general was an attempt to \u201cget the administration to do the right thing.\u201d Lowell said that depending on the outcome of their complaint, they\u2019ll explore other options including a possible lawsuit. Lowell, a veteran Washington lawyer, announced earlier this year that he was opening his own legal practice and would represent targets of Trump\u2019s retribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A former Homeland Security official during President Donald Trump\u2019s first administration who authored an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president is calling on independent government watchdogs to investigate after Trump ordered the department to look into his government service. Miles Taylor, once chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, warned in an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":11318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1830,2710,1724],"class_list":["post-11317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-security","tag-taylor","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nEx-Homeland Security official Taylor fights back against Trump\u2019s \u2018unprecedented\u2019 investigation order - LISTEN WORLD<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=11317\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ex-Homeland Security official Taylor fights back against Trump\u2019s \u2018unprecedented\u2019 investigation order - LISTEN WORLD\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A former Homeland Security official during President Donald Trump\u2019s first administration who authored an anonymous op-ed sharply critical of the president is calling on independent government watchdogs to investigate after Trump ordered the department to look into his government service. 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