Trump’s former press secretary meets with January 6 committee
(CNN)Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Wednesday appeared before the House select committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.
The meeting was virtual. McEnany, who worked in the Trump White House and was a spokesperson for Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign, was initially subpoenaed in November.
McEnany was absent Wednesday from “Outnumbered,” the lunch hour show she usually co-hosts on Fox.
The committee has requested a significant number of McEnany’s records from the National Archives, which are still tied up in court because former President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to block the committee’s access to his White House records.
According to a disclosure from the National Archives made in court in October, the committee is seeking “629 pages from multiple binders containing proposed talking points for the Press Secretary, interspersed with a relatively small number of related statements and documents, principally relating to allegations of voter fraud, election security, and other topics concerning the 2020 election.”
The committee’s original subpoena of McEnany shows a specific interest in her public statements related to spreading misinformation about the 2020 election results. As press secretary, McEnany served in one of the most highly visible roles in the Trump administration. She spoke not only from the White House lectern, but also from the campaign headquarters as a spokesperson.
The committee specifically pointed to many of her public statements as contributing to the belief there was something wrong with the election.
Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the committee, said in a statement at the time of the release of McEnany’s subpoena, along with other former White House officials, “We need to know precisely what role the former President and his aides played in efforts to stop the counting of the electoral votes and if they were in touch with anyone outside the White House attempting to overturn the outcome of the election.”
This story has been updated with additional details Wednesday.
CNN’s Katelyn Polantz contributed to this report.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/12/politics/kayleigh-mcenany-january-6-committee/index.html
