Trump official McEntee testifies about drawing up troop withdrawal directive, installing loyalists

Testimony of former White House staff official Johnny McEntee reveals how he suddenly went from Donald Trump’s “body man” to running an office that helped write a directive ordering troop withdrawals and installed loyalists in the Pentagon.

McEntee, 32, had served as Trump’s ‘personal assistant’ on the 2016 campaign and in the White House, when White House chief of staff John Kelly told him to resign in 2018 while facing an investigation. for bets, he confirmed to the Chamber in January. 6 Committee.

But it didn’t take long for him to take the helm of an office of key personnel that oversaw 4,000 political appointees, including key officials who took up residence at the Pentagon after Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The Jan. 6 House panel released McEntee’s transcripts on Wednesday, after ruling out previous interviews with former White House adviser Hope Hicks and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, among others.

McEntee landed her key job in February 2020 while overseeing Trump’s schedule, mentioning that his Office of Presidential Personnel was on his calendar. Trump later told McEntee that he had “so many problems in that department.”

‘And then he asked me, do you think you could ever do this role?’

“Within a week or so I had the part,” he testified.

The job gave McEntee great influence, and his team placed people who had done well in interviews for lesser jobs in important roles in Trump’s final months in office.

Some faced what has been called a “loyalty test,” a term McEntee did not dispute.

He remembered one of the questions. “I remember one was, what is your favorite policy that President Trump has pushed, something like that?”

McEntee came under pressure over the effort to oust Pentagon Secretary Mark Esper, whom Trump “fired” two days after the election, in a shakeup that the January 6 committee investigated as part of the transfer of power.

Sometime in 2020, McEntee, as director of the Office of Presidential Personnel, helped come up with a list of reasons to fire Esper.

One said he “consistently broke with the POTUS leadership”, which McEntee said was referring to “withdrawals from certain countries”, naming “Germany and then obviously Afghanistan”.

Point 4 said he “publicly opposed the president’s order to use US forces to quell riots outside the White House in the nation’s capital, limiting the president’s decision-making space.”

Esper had internally apologized for accompanying Trump in an infamous photo op amid George Floyd-related protests in Lafayette Square. A footnote read: “Esper opposes the Insurrection Act.”

He also described the decision to install Chris Miller as acting defense secretary to replace Esper, who had been confirmed to have a minor role in fighting terrorism. His office ‘floated’ Miller’s name.

McEntee was anticipating that “big changes were going to happen in a possible second term,” but things sped up when it appeared that only 70 days remained with Trump in office.

His office also helped install Kash Patel as Miller’s chief of staff. When asked whose idea it was, he replied: ‘As far as I can remember, it was all three of them. Kash wanted to do it, Chris wanted it to happen, and our office thought it was a good idea. He, too, had been considered for deputy director of the CIA and FBI, though McEntee was familiar with the potential position at Langley.

CIA director Gina Haspel has threatened to resign over it, confirmed it sounded familiar, and former attorney general Bill Barr said Patel would become deputy director allegedly just because of his “corpse,” a sentiment McEntee did not dispute.

While his lawyer objected to a line of questioning that goes well beyond the scope of the investigation into the January 6 and Trump election nullification effort, committee members continued to investigate domestic politics as connected to ‘keeping power within government that is mandated or obstructing the transfer of power.’

His office ‘drafted’ a memo on the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and Somalia.

‘Is it typical for the Presidential Personnel Office to write orders on the withdrawal of troops?’ They Asked.

“Probably not typical, no,” he replied.

McEntee testified that he obtained Trump’s signature and then emailed it to the Pentagon.

It went to “probably Kash Patel,” he said.

He said Colonel Douglas McGregor, who had recently moved to the Defense Department as a senior adviser, said the policy would not pass without a “directive.”

The November 11 memo, reported by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, read: “I hereby direct you to withdraw all US forces from the Federal Republic of Somalia no later than December 31, 2020 and from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan no later than January 15.” 2021.’

McEntee also testified about a memo similar to Esper’s, detailing the reasons for firing Chris Krebs, a DHS official who had guaranteed the election was “the safest in American history.”

The fourth bullet point, according to a memo cited in his testimony, read: “The wife posted a family photo on Facebook with the Biden-Harris logo watermarked at the bottom.” She also said “she has protected people who were never appointed by Trump.”

McEntee said that, as head of an investigative staffed bureau, he also looked into some of Trump’s voter fraud claims, including documents from ‘Kraken’ lawyer Sidney Powell. “Most of them were fake,” he said.

He entrusted the investigation to “young employees who worked in the office with me.”