Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump forces out senior cybersecurity official in charge of stamping out election misinformation

String of national security officials asked to leave following president’s defeat

Graeme Massie
Los Angeles
Thursday 12 November 2020 22:30 GMT
Comments
Schumer urges Republicans to drop ‘pathetic political performance’ over election results

Donald Trump has reportedly forced out a senior US cybersecurity official in charge of stamping out election misinformation.

Bryan Ware is leaving the government after being asked to resign from his job by the White House, according to Reuters.

Mr Ware was the assistant director for cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

He confirmed his resignation to Reuters and another US official familiar with the matter confirmed that the White House had demanded it.

Mr Ware is among a number of officials who have left national security roles in the wake of Mr Trump’s election loss to Joe Biden.

CISA’s role in running secure elections has put it firmly at odds with Mr Trump, who has refused to concede and pushed false claims of widespread election fraud, of which there is no evidence.

Christopher Krebs, the head of CISA, has also told colleagues he expects to be fired, according to Bloomberg.

Officials at CISA have refused to comment on Mr Ware’s departure.

Additional reporting by Reuters

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in