Former top Trump ‘loyalty cop’ John McEntee testifies before grand jury: CNN
John McEntee, the former presidential body turned top Trump White House aide in charge of personnel, was subpoenaed in the special counsel’s investigation into Donald Trump’s actions related to the January 6 insurrection, and testified before a grand jury Friday, CNN reports.
McEntee began his career with Trump as a campaign intern, rose to become the President’s body man but was fired after failing to pass a security background check under White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, After Kelly’s departure Trump rehired McEntee and promoted him to Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office.
In that top position, which Axios referred to as “Trump’s loyalty cop,” McEntee was behind the administration’s last year of forced declarations of allegiance to Trump.
A 2021 article in The Atlantic calls McEntee “The Man Who Made January 6 Possible.”
“Some Trump aides privately compared the PPO [White House Presidential Personnel Office] to the East German Stasi or even the Gestapo—always on the lookout for traitors within,” The Atlantic’s Jonathan D. Karl wrote.
“The office was run by Johnny McEntee. Just 29 when he got the job, he’d come up as Trump’s body guy—the kid who carried the candidate’s bags. One of Trump’s most high-profile Cabinet secretaries described him to me as ‘a fucking idiot.’ But in 2020, his power was undeniable. Trump knew he was the one person willing to do anything Trump wanted. As another senior official told me, ‘He became the deputy president.'”
CNN reports McEntee “appeared on Friday before a grand jury on Trump-related investigations at the federal courthouse in Washington, DC,” after having been “subpoenaed by the Justice Department as part of its sprawling probe, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN.”
“The Justice Department investigation, led by special counsel Jack Smith, is focused on efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to undermine the 2020 election results.”
In 2018 NCRM reported that McEntee was abruptly fired and led out of the White House without his coat. The issue, according to a report from the Washington Post, was that McEntee allegedly had a high-dollar gambling habit that could have posed a security risk.