Trump fires top Homeland Security official who said election was most secure in US history
Washington: US President Donald Trump has fired a top Homeland Security official who last week said that the November 3 presidential election was the most secure one in America's history.
Trump, who has launched a slew of lawsuits in key states, but has not provided any evidence to back his claims of fraud, announced on Twitter on Tuesday that he has fired Christopher Krebs, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) at the Department of Homeland Security.
The recent statement by Chris Krebs on the security of the 2020 Election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud - including dead people voting, poll watchers not allowed into polling locations, glitches in the voting machines which changed votes from Trump to (President-elect Joe) Biden, late voting and many more, Trump said in a tweet, repeating unsubstantiated claims of election fraud.
Therefore, effective immediately, Chris Krebs has been terminated as Director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, he said.
Trump said that the only thing secure about the election was that it was virtually impenetrable by foreign powers.
On that, the Trump administration takes great credit. Unfortunately, the Radical Left Democrats, Dominion, and others were perhaps more successful! he said.
The mainstream media has declared Biden as the winner of the presidential election after the 77-year-old former vice president crossed the mandatory 270 electoral votes out of the 538-member Electoral College.
Trump, however, has refused to concede the election, asserting that he has won.
Trump, who has 232 electoral college votes, has challenged the election results in various states including Pennsylvania, Nevada, Michigan, Georgia, and Arizona. He had demanded a recount in Wisconsin.
In his capacity as president-elect, Biden has been receiving congratulatory calls from the world leaders.
Media and state officials have said that they have not found any evidence of voter fraud as alleged by Trump.
In a statement issued on November 12, members of the Election Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council (GCC) including Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said that the November 3 election was the most secure in American history.
Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result, it said.
When states have close elections, many will recount ballots. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised, the statement said.
Senator Mark Warner, the co-chair of the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus, condemned the firing of Krebs.
Chris Krebs is an extraordinary public servant and exactly the person Americans want protecting the security of our elections. It speaks volumes that the president chose to fire him simply for telling the truth, he said.
Congressman Adam Schiff, Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said that throughout this election, Krebs worked diligently to safeguard the elections, provide vital support to state and local election officials, and inform the American people about what was true and what was not.
In the best tradition of government service, they spoke truth to power and helped keep Americans and our institutions safe. Instead of rewarding this great service, President Trump is retaliating against Director Krebs and other officials who did their duty. It's pathetic but sadly predictable that upholding and protecting our democratic processes would be cause for firing, he said.
In a joint statement, Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, and Lauren Underwood, Chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Innovation, said that in firing Krebs for refusing to lend credibility to his baseless claims and conspiracy theories about voter fraud, Trump is telling officials throughout the administration to put his political interests ahead of their responsibilities to the American people.
That is not only disturbing, but it is also anti-democratic, the two lawmakers said.
The President's unsubstantiated tweets this evening do nothing to defend our state and local governments and critical infrastructure against malicious cyber campaigns from Russia, China, and Iran. And they do nothing to improve the security of our elections, they said.
Our country finds itself without a smart and capable cyber chief in one of the most vulnerable times our nation has ever seen during a worsening pandemic and in the middle of a presidential transition. Once again, President Trump puts himself before our country. He does not care about the safety and wellbeing of the American people and that is why he lost this election," said Congressman C A Dutch Ruppersberger.
Congressman Jim Langevin, a senior member of House Committee on Homeland Security, member of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Cybersecurity Caucus decried the removal of Krebs.
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Delhi court sentences Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia, associate to life imprisonment
New Delhi (PTI): A Delhi court has sentenced Haryana gangster Vikas Gulia and his associate to life imprisonment under MCOCA provisions, but refused the death penalty saying the offences did not fall under the category of 'rarest of the rare cases'.
Additional Sessions Judge Vandana Jain sentenced Gulia and Dhirpal alias Kana to rigorous imprisonment for life under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).
In an order dated December 13, the judge said, "Death sentence can only be awarded in 'rarest of the rare cases' wherein the murder is committed in an extremely inhumane, barbarous, grotesque or dastardly manner as to arouse umbrage of the community at large."
The judge said that on weighing the aggravating and mitigating circumstances, it could be concluded that the present case did not fall under the category, and so, the death penalty could not be imposed upon the convicts.
"Thus, both the convicts are sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 3 lakh each, for committing the offence under Section 3 of MCOCA," she said.
The public prosecutor, seeking the death penalty for both the accused, submitted that they were involved in several unlawful activities while they were on bail in other cases.
He argued that the accused had shown no respect for the law and acted without any fear of legal consequences, and therefore did not deserve any leniency from the court.
The court noted that both convicts were involved in offences of murder, attempt to murder, extortion, robbery, house trespass, and criminal intimidation. Besides, they had misused the liberty of interim bail granted to them by absconding.
It said, "The terror of the convicts was such that it created fear psychosis in the mind of the general public, and they lost complete faith in the law enforcement agencies and chose to accede to the illegal demands of convicts. Despite suffering losses, they could not gather the courage to depose against them."
The court noted that Gulia was involved in at least 18 criminal cases, while Dhirpal had links to 10 serious offences.
It underlined that MCOCA had been enacted "keeping in view the fact that organised crime had come up as a serious threat to society, as it knew no territorial boundaries and is fuelled by illegal wealth generated by committing the offence of extortion, contract killings, kidnapping for ransom, collection of protection money, murder, etc."
Both accused persons had been convicted on December 10 in a case registered at Najafgarh police station. The police filed a chargesheet under Section 3 (punishment for organised crime) and 4 (punishment for possessing unaccountable wealth on behalf of member of organised crime syndicate) of MCOCA.
