President Trump on Wednesday signed a pair of memorandums directing the Department of Justice to investigate two individuals who served in his first administration and pushed back against Trump.

Trump signed a memo targeting Miles Taylor, who served as a deputy chief of staff in the Department of Homeland Security during the first Trump administration. Taylor wrote a New York Times op-ed and later a book under the pseudonym “Anonymous” about how some officials were working to thwart Trump’s impulses.

White House staff secretary Will Scharf said the memo would strip any active security clearance for Taylor and would direct the Justice Department “to investigate his activities to see what else might come up in that context given his egregious behavior during your previous administration.”

Trump told reporters he had “no idea” who Taylor was, and compared him to a “traitor.”

“I think we have to do something about it. You can’t have that happen,” Trump said. “If that happens to other presidents, it wouldn’t be sustainable for other presidents. I seem to be able to sustain. But if that happened to other presidents, it’s just unfair.”

In addition to Taylor, Trump signed a memo going after Chris Krebs, the former director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). Krebs in 2020 pushed back against Trump’s claims that the election had been fraudulent and was adamant that the nation’s elections were not compromised.

The order revokes any security clearances for Krebs and his associates and “further instructs your Department of Justice … to investigate some of the malign acts he participated in while he was still head of CISA,” Scharf said.

The orders marked the latest act of retribution from Trump against critics and those who have spoken out against him from his first administration. In addition to former President Biden himself, Trump has stripped security details for Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Defense Secretary Mark Esper and former national security adviser John Bolton. 

He has also stripped security clearances for several officials from the Biden administration and other prominent critics.

And Trump has signed orders targeting law firms with ties to Democrats or individuals who previously investigated him.