AMNA NAWAZ: Late yesterday, President Trump signed executive orders targeting two former officials who criticized him.

Escalating his retribution campaign, the president directed the Justice Department to investigate Miles Taylor, a former Homeland Security official, and Christopher Krebs, a top cybersecurity official overseeing elections, both political appointees during Trump's first term.

The president accused Taylor, without evidence, of treason.

DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States: I think it's a very important case.

And I think he's guilty of treason, if you want to know the truth.

But we will find out.

This guy Krebs was saying, oh, the election was great.

It was great.

That was a very corrupt election.

They use COVID to cheat.

And we're going to find out about this guy too.

AMNA NAWAZ: Our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez, has been following the latest and joins me now.

So, Laura, let's just start with these executive orders.

Break down for us what exactly they do.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: So the executive order orders targeting Chris Krebs and Miles Taylor strip security clearances from both of those former officials.

They also revoke the clearances for their work associates.

For Taylor, that means people that work at University of Pennsylvania, and for Krebs anyone at the company that he works at, SentinelOne.

And then finally they -- Trump ordered the Justice Department and Homeland Security to launch investigations into Krebs and Taylor's tenure during his first administration.

Now, that last one, Amna, that's escalation.

Lawyers that I talked to said that there is no prior target of President Trump that has been subject to an investigation by the Justice Department that potentially threatens criminal penalties.

AMNA NAWAZ: So Miles Taylor and Chris Krebs, why is the president targeting these two men specifically?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: As you noted, Amna, both of these men have been critical of President Trump's conduct, be it during the first term and since then.

And Trump's executive order specifically targets Chris Krebs for telling the truth about the 2020 election.

When it comes to Miles Taylor, the president says that he disclosed sensitive information and claims that Taylor potentially published classified information.

Now, many of our viewers may remember that Miles Taylor authored an anonymous 2018 op-ed about resisting President Trump from inside of the first administration.

AMNA NAWAZ: And have we had any kind of response from Mr. Taylor or Mr. Krebs?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Chris Krebs reaffirmed his statement from 2020, essentially saying that the election was secure.

Now, SentinelOne, the cybersecurity firm that Chris Krebs works for, said that they will cooperate with any review of security clearances of their workers.

Miles Taylor himself posted to social media platform X, saying: "Dissent isn't unlawful.

It certainly isn't treasonous and America is headed down a dark path."

AMNA NAWAZ: Now, Laura, we have seen the president target before people, institutions he believes are his political enemies.

What's the larger pattern and context we need to understand here?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: The lawyers and legal scholars that I spoke to said that these actions are unprecedented, that they have never seen a present use power in the way that President Trump is using to go after his perceived enemies.

He's essentially stripping traditional power -- traditional separation between the Justice Department and his office of the presidency.

Now, this is part of a larger pattern of punishing any person or entity that the president considers an enemy.

Now, we -- this is not an exhaustive list that we're about to show, but these are some of the people who President Trump has either revoked security clearances for or security protections for.

That includes former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, Trump's former Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and many others.

Now, the president has also targeted law firms that either legally challenged his policies or represented political opponents or cooperated with some of the prosecutions that were carried out against the president.

Now, this week, the president added to his target list the firm Susman Godfrey and targeting their security clearances.

They represented Dominion Voting Systems in their lawsuit against FOX News.

And people will remember that FOX News had to settle $787 million to Dominion Voting Systems.

AMNA NAWAZ: Laura, going after these law firms in this way, investigating two former officials from his administration, what are the ramifications here?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: I spoke to Kevin Carroll, who served as counsel under the Homeland Security Department during Trump's first term, and he called these actions specifically against Taylor and Krebs blatantly unconstitutional and said that it was just the beginning.

KEVIN CARROLL, Former Senior Homeland Security Official: They're going to continue to go after individuals and law firms.

And I think it's very important for people to fight back and for the courts to support them when they fight back.

What they're trying to do is going forward prevent people from being whistle-blowers, prevent people from speaking out about misconduct, prevent people from telling the truth about election results.

And it's just really important for the legal profession especially to show some backbone.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Now, Carroll and other lawyers that I talked to you said there were three big ramifications here, the chilling effect on political speech broadly, the intimidation and scare tactics being used against lawyers and government officials, who could ultimately hold President Trump or his administration accountable, and also the impact on the right to representation, meaning that Kevin Carroll was worried that lawyers may turn down clients who find themselves on the opposite end of the administration.

AMNA NAWAZ: All right, that's our White House correspondent, Laura Barron-Lopez.

Laura, thank you.

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ: Thank you.