Then-CISA Director Jen Easterly testifies before the House (Select) Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party Committee on Capitol Hill on January 31, 2024. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announced July 30 that he had rescinded a West Point job offer to Easterly. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
By David DiMolfetta,
Cybersecurity Reporter, Nextgov/FCW
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Jen Easterly was one of the top cybersecurity officials that served in the Biden administration and is a West Point alumna.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said he had rescinded a United States Military Academy at West Point job offer extended to former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency director Jen Easterly on Wednesday after far-right activist Laura Loomer highlighted the hiring on social media.
Easterly, who led CISA under former President Joe Biden, is a West Point graduate and was set to return as the new Robert F. McDermott Distinguished Chair in its Department of Social Sciences.
In a Tuesday X post, Loomer tagged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and said that “some of your underlings are trying to screw you” and that there are “clearly a lot of Biden holdovers at DOD undermining the Trump admin.”
Loomer said that Easterly “brought in” Nina Jankowitz, a former DHS official who ran the now‑shuttered Disinformation Governance Board, casting her as part of a network of officials she accused of working against President Donald Trump.
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll in a follow-up Wednesday X post said that Easterly’s offer was rescinded and that he’s pausing outside groups from selecting academy employees and instructors.
A LinkedIn post announcing Easterly’s hiring has since been removed. The role of McDermott Chair was established to attract senior leaders whose blend of scholarship and experience can help train cadets for modern-day military service.
Easterly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
“The Secretary of the Army took immediate action to direct West Point to terminate the service agreement with Jen Easterly, pause outside groups from selecting Academy employees or instructors, and has requested a review of West Point’s hiring practices,” an Army spokesperson said. “Ahead of the upcoming academic year, we are crafting a deliberate approach to ensure that our future officers are best prepared to meet the demands of the modern battlefield.”
Loomer has encouraged the Trump administration to jettison officials deemed corrupt or unfit to serve in his second term, including those who stayed in their roles after Trump reentered the Oval Office. Loomer has taken credit for the removal of several top officials in recent months, including the head of the National Security Agency, as well as the spy agency’s top lawyer.
CISA has been the target of the Trump White House for myriad reasons. Trump in 2020 falsely claimed the election that year was rigged and stolen from him. When former CISA director Chris Krebs said the election was the “most secure in American history,” the president subsequently fired him. Krebs, as well as his former private sector employer, have since been targeted by the second Trump administration.
The cyber agency has also drawn vast criticism from both Trump and other members of the GOP for its past efforts to combat mis- and disinformation posted about the 2020 election, COVID-19 and other flashpoint issues on social media. The efforts involved notifying companies of online content that contained elements of misinformation or disinformation by both foreign adversaries and domestic actors.
Conservative legal challenges argued that the government’s role in flagging posts deemed misleading or false resulted in the suppression of politically conservative viewpoints. That dynamic has continued into Trump’s second administration, where Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has vowed to curtail the size and scope of CISA.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include a statement from the Army.