The Real Reason Kayleigh McEnany Was Just Issued A Subpoena

Ten months after the tragic and frightening events of the January 6 insurrection at Capitol Hill, it seems that the House commission appointed to investigate the originating forces of the nation-shaking riots are focusing their microscope. Specifically, they're seemingly focusing it on Donald Trump's inner sanctum of officials. 

On November 9, CNN and others reported that subpoenas had been issued to no less than ten different members of the Trump administration, a number of whom were major players in the West Wing. Among those names included Keith Kellogg (the former national security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence), Christopher Liddell (Trump's White House deputy chief of staff), and Stephen Miller, the Trump senior adviser who is considered the major architect of the 2017 anti-immigrant travel ban and other xenophobic Trump policies. 

But perhaps the biggest name among the crop is one of its most public-facing: Kayleigh McEnany, who was Trump's press secretary from April 2020 (via The New York Times) to the very end of the Trump presidency. So why, exactly, has McEnany been subpoenaed? How could it affect her life in both the near and distant future? And what will happen next?

According to CNN, the reason Kayleigh McEnancy was issued a subpoena is for her testimony regarding the events leading up to the January Capitol Hill insurrection, the events of the day itself, and the events following. As a statement from the committee's chairman — Democratic Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson — issued on November 9, said, "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."

In particular, McEnany's subpoena was issued primarily in relation to her role as secretary, along with her participation in upholding ex-President Donald Trump's misinformation campaign about the results of the November 2020 election. Per CNN, the committee stated she "claimed that there were 'very real claims' of fraud that the former President's reelection campaign was pursuing, and said that mail-in voting was something that 'we have identified as being particularly prone to fraud.'"

Days before the press broke the story, McEnany, who was often accused of lying to the press during her White House tenure, was featured in an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, though it has yet to air. It is also unclear as to whether the subpoena will affect her screen time on Fox News' daytime show "Outnumbered," where she serves as a panelist and contributor.