Ex-Homeland Security official Taylor fights back against probe: Trump creating a ‘modern blacklist'
Miles Taylor, a former deputy chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration who wrote an op-ed criticizing President Trump, said the president is creating a 'modern blacklist.'
'I think he wants to create a modern blacklist and have that blacklist ruin people's lives,' Taylor responded when asked what he believes Trump's plan is during an interview on MSNBC's 'Deadline White House.'
'Because it's a lot of effort to go through with trying to pursue and prosecute hundreds of your enemies,' he continued. 'All you need to do is try to successfully do that to a couple, to send a message, and that's what some of his officials have said.'
Taylor wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in 2018 and later a book under the pseudonym 'Anonymous' about how some officials were working to thwart Trump's impulses. In April, Trump signed a memorandum directing the Department of Justice to investigate Taylor, saying he was likely 'guilty of treason.'
Taylor added that officials have said Trump put forward the orders to investigate him, as well as Chris Krebs, who was ousted from his post as director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2020, 'to send a message,' adding that 'to a certain extent, it works.'
'I'm the sole income earner in my household. I had to leave my job,' Taylor said. 'My wife, who's stayed home with our daughter, had to return to work so that we can buy diapers, so we can buy formula, so we can pay the mortgage.
'We had to go launch a legal defense fund, because we don't think we can pay for the legal bills for this type of thing.'
Taylor, during an interview with the Associated Press, said the investigation sets a 'really, really, really scary precedent' because the president 'can now sign an order investigating any private citizen he wants, any critic, any foe, anyone.'
'I didn't commit any crime, and that's what's extraordinary about this. I can't think of any case where someone knows they're being investigated but has absolutely no idea what crime they allegedly committed. And it's because I didn't.'
Taylor emphasized that there were also threats to his and his family's security in the wake of Trump's investigation, even adding that someone advised his wife and him to 'go update your last will and testament to name a guardian for your daughter.'
Despite others advising him to 'keep his head down' in the hopes that the situation will 'blow over,' Taylor said, 'We know this guy, we don't think this will blow over.'
'I'm a guy from a small town in Indiana, and you don't just watch something this wrong happen and not say something,' he added. 'And we know that that means we're going to have to take more punches if we're out there. But this is just wrong.'
Taylor also noted his family's feelings of isolation, noting that he has had close friends call to tell him that they need to keep their distance. However, Taylor emphasized that him speaking out is 'not so that people play the violin for me,' but so he can show how easy it is for the president 'to order a revenge investigation against an American.'
'Right now, this could be happening to anyone, and that's why we've decided to step out.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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An analysis by The Associated Press shows that 30 of Trump's 150 executive orders have cited some kind of emergency power or authority, a rate that far outpaces his recent predecessors. The result is a redefinition of how presidents can wield power. Instead of responding to an unforeseen crisis, Trump is using emergency powers to supplant Congress' authority and advance his agenda. 'What's notable about Trump is the enormous scale and extent, which is greater than under any modern president,' said Ilya Somin, who is representing five U.S. businesses who sued the administration, claiming they were harmed by Trump's so-called 'Liberation Day' tariffs. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Because Congress has the power to set trade policy under the Constitution, the businesses convinced a federal trade court that Trump overstepped his authority by claiming an economic emergency to impose the tariffs. An appeals court has paused that ruling while the judges review it. Advertisement Growing concerns over actions The legal battle is a reminder of the potential risks of Trump's strategy. Judges traditionally have given presidents wide latitude to exercise emergency powers that were created by Congress. However, there's growing concern that Trump is pressing the limits when the U.S. is not facing the kinds of threats such actions are meant to address. Advertisement 'The temptation is clear,' said Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Brennan Center's Liberty and National Security Program and an expert in emergency powers. 'What's remarkable is how little abuse there was before, but we're in a different era now.' Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who has drafted legislation that would allow Congress to reassert tariff authority, said he believed the courts would ultimately rule against Trump in his efforts to single-handedly shape trade policy. 'It's the Constitution. James Madison wrote it that way, and it was very explicit,' Bacon said of Congress' power over trade. 'And I get the emergency powers, but I think it's being abused. When you're trying to do tariff policy for 80 countries, that's policy, not emergency action.' The White House pushed back on such concerns, saying Trump is justified in aggressively using his authority. 'President Trump is rightfully enlisting his emergency powers to quickly rectify four years of failure and fix the many catastrophes he inherited from Joe Biden — wide open borders, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, radical climate regulations, historic inflation, and economic and national security threats posed by trade deficits," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. 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The Trump administration has also deployed an 18th century law, the Alien Enemies Act, to justify deporting Venezuelan migrants to other countries, including El Salvador. Trump's decision to invoke the law relies on allegations that the Venezuelan government coordinates with the Tren de Aragua gang, but intelligence officials did not reach that conclusion. Congress has ceded its power to the presidency Congress has granted emergency powers to the presidency over the years, acknowledging that the executive branch can act more swiftly than lawmakers if there is a crisis. There are 150 legal powers — including waiving a wide variety of actions that Congress has broadly prohibited — that can only be accessed after declaring an emergency. In an emergency, for example, an administration can suspend environmental regulations, approve new drugs or therapeutics, take over the transportation system, or even override bans on testing biological or chemical weapons on human subjects, according to a list compiled by the Brennan Center for Justice. Democrats and Republicans have pushed the boundaries over the years. For example, in an attempt to cancel federal student loan debt, Joe Biden used a post-Sept. 11 law that empowered education secretaries to reduce or eliminate such obligations during a national emergency. The U.S. Supreme Court eventually rejected his effort, forcing Biden to find different avenues to chip away at his goals. Advertisement Before that, Bush pursued warrantless domestic wiretapping and Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered the detention of Japanese-Americans on the West Coast in camps for the duration of World War II. 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'We believe — and we're right — that we are in an emergency,' Vance said last week in an interview with Newsmax. 'You have seen foreign governments, sometimes our adversaries, threaten the American people with the loss of critical supplies,' Vance said. 'I'm not talking about toys, plastic toys. I'm talking about pharmaceutical ingredients. I'm talking about the critical pieces of the manufacturing supply chain.' Vance continued, 'These governments are threatening to cut us off from that stuff, that is by definition, a national emergency.' Republican and Democratic lawmakers have tried to rein in a president's emergency powers. Two years ago, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced legislation that would have ended a presidentially-declared emergency after 30 days unless Congress votes to keep it in place. It failed to advance. Advertisement Similar legislation hasn't been introduced since Trump's return to office. Right now, it effectively works in the reverse, with Congress required to vote to end an emergency. 'He has proved to be so lawless and reckless in so many ways. Congress has a responsibility to make sure there's oversight and safeguards,' said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who cosponsored an emergency powers reform bill in the previous session of Congress. He argued that, historically, leaders relying on emergency declarations has been a 'path toward autocracy and suppression.'
