Former Trump 'body man' Johnny McEntee reveals how he got the president to sign order to pull out of Afghanistan, helped design 'loyalty test,' and aided move to fire Pentagon chief Mark Esper for failing to 'put down riots just outside the White House'

• e-mail

Testimony by former White House personnel official Johnny McEntee reveals how he went suddenly from Donald Trump 'body man' to running an office that helped draft a directive ordering troop withdrawals and installed loyalists at the Pentagon.

McEntee, 32, had served as a 'personal aide' to Trump on the 2016 campaign and at the White House, when White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told him to resign in 2018 while facing a gambling investigation, he confirmed to the House January 6 Committee.

But it didn't take long for him to take the helm of a key personnel office that oversaw 4,000 political appointees – including key officials who were installed at the Pentagon after Trump fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper.

The House January 6 panel released transcripts by McEntee Wednesday, after pushing out previous interviews with former White House aide Hope Hicks and former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, and others. 

McEntee landed his key job in February 2020 while overseeing Trump's schedule and mentioning that his Presidential Personnel Office was on his calendar. Trump then told McEntee he had 'so many problems in that department.'

As Director of the Presidential Personnel Office, Johnny McEntee helped oversee a memo spelling out reason to fire Defense Secretary Mark Esper. He testified about a Trump loyalty test and the move to install loyalists at the Pentagon immediately after the 2020 election

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

'Within a week or so I had the role,' he testified.

The job gave McEntee wide influence – and his team placed people who had done well in interviews for inferior jobs into major roles in Trump's last months in office.

Some faced what has been called a 'loyalty test,' a term McEntee didn't dispute.

He recalled one of the questions. 'I do remember one was, what's your favorite policy President Trump has pushed, something like that.' 

McEntee describes the drafting of a list of reasons to fire Pentagon chief Mark Esper

Esper apologized for taking part in a Trump photo-op in Lafayette Square in June 2020

Esper 'publicly opposed the President's direction to utilize American forces to put down riots just outside the White House in Nation's capital, limiting the President's decision space,' according for a memo on reasons to fire him

McEntee was pressed on the effort to force out Pentagon Secretary Mark Esper, who Trump 'terminated' two days after the election – in a shakeup that the January 6 committee probed as part of the transfer of power.

Some time in 2020, McEntee, as director of the Presidential Personnel Office, helped draw up a list of reasons to fire Esper.

One said he 'Consistently breaks from POTUS' direction,' which McEntee said referred to 'withdrawals from certain countries,' naming 'Germany, and then obviously Afghanistan.' 

Point 4 said he 'Publicly opposed the President's direction to utilize American forces to put down riots just outside the White House in Nation's capital, limiting the President's decision space.'

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

He also described the move to install Chris Miller as Acting Secretary of Defense to replace Esper, who had been confirmed to a lower counterterrorism role. His office 'floated' Miller's name.

McEntee was anticipating 'big changes were going to happen in a potential second term,' but things accelerated when it appeared there were only 70 days left with Trump in office.

Trump promoted McEntee to make him Director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office

His office also helped install Kash Patel in the role of Miller's chief of staff. Asked whose idea it was, he responded: 'From what I remember, it was all three. Kash wanted to do it, Chris wanted it to happen, and our office thought it was a good idea.' He had also been considered for deputy director of the CIA and the FBI, although McEntee was familiar with the potential job at Langley.

CIA Director Gina Haspel threatened to resign over it, he confirmed as sounding familiar, and former AG Bill Barr said Patel would become deputy director reportedly only over his 'dead body' – a sentiment McEntee didn't dispute.

While his lawyer objected at a line of questioning as far beyond the scope of the inquiry into the January 6 and Trump's election overturn effort, committee members continued to probe the internal politics as connected to 'maintaining the power within the government that is part of the mandate or obstructing the transfer of power.'

His office 'drafted' a memo about withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan and Somalia.

'Is it typical for the Presidential Personnel Office to draft orders concerning troop withdrawal"?' he was asked.

'Probably not typical, no,' he responded.

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

It went to 'most likely Kash Patel,' he said.

He said Col. Douglas McGregor, who had recently gone to DOD as a senior advisor, said the policy wouldn't go through without a 'directive.'

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

McEntee also testified about a similar memo to the Esper one, this one spelling out reasons to fire Chris Krebs, a DHS official who had vouched for the election as 'the most secure in American history.'

The fourth point, according to a memo cited in his testimony, stated: 'Wife posted a family photo on Facebook with the Biden-Harris logo watermarked at the bottom.' It also said 'has protected never-Trump appointees.'

McEntee said as head of an office with a research staff he also ran down some of Trump's claims of election fraud, including documents from 'Kraken' lawyer Sidney Powell. 'Most of them were bogus,' he said. 

He tasked the research to 'young staffers that worked int he office there with me.'