Trump campaign lawyer Joe diGenova resigned from the elite Gridiron Club earlier this week after he suggested that a former cybersecurity official should be executed after touting a secure election and rebutting claims of widespread fraud made by President Donald Trump and his allies.
The Trump lawyer and former U.S. attorney made the announcement on Tuesday after being asked to step down after more than 25 years as a “limited” member of a club frequented by Washington-area journalists, the Washington Post reported Wednesday evening.
The news comes after diGenova faced swift backlash for telling conservative radio show host Howie Carr on Monday that Chris Krebs, a former federal elections official who Trump fired last month, should be “taken out at dawn and shot.”
Club president Craig Gilbert, who is the Washington bureau chief for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, said that the 135-year-old social club where Trump has given remarks was “dismayed” by the lawyer’s comments which he said were “antithetical to what the club is about.”
DiGenova tried to walk back the remarks claiming they “were sarcastic and made in jest,” while adding that he did not wish Krebs harm.
DiGenova’s comments were denounced by the White House and also stirred action on Capitol Hill Wednesday as U.S. Reps. Kathleen Rice (D-NY) and Ted W. Lieu (D-CA), called on the D.C. bar to open an investigation into diGenova’s statements for incitement to violence and a violation of rules of professional conduct.
The Trump campaign lawyer told the Post on Wednesday that he has since suffered a series of threatening phone calls, adding that his law firm was hiring private security for him, his wife and their employees.
Lamenting his departure from the club, diGenova asserted that he had been “canceled” for the remarks.
“It’s their club, and we’re at a strange time in American history, and, I guess I was canceled,” he said.
