How Much Did the White House Know About Staff Secretary Rob Porter’s History of Domestic Violence?
Rob Porter, a senior White House official who is the latest to leave the administration, was allowed access to presidential correspondence, among other duties in his position as staff secretary, despite reports of abuse from two ex-wives, who told the FBI about his violent history during background checks regarding his security clearance in February 2017. He was allowed to work without that clearance, after having been denied it in part due to the abuse allegations, for a full year, according to CBS News. The Intercept spoke to both women in an article posted on Wednesday, shortly after Porter resigned. The women recount being choked, kicked, and physically restrained by Porter. One of the women filed a protective order against him in 2010.
Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, showed FBI agents gruesome photos she took of herself after Porter hit her in the face on vacation in Florence, The Intercept reported. Porter resigned earlier on Wednesday, after the Daily Mail ran its own story with claims from Holderness and Porter’s second wife, Jennifer Willoughby. Though he stepped down, Porter denied the contents of the report, saying, “I will not further engage publicly with a coordinated smear campaign.” Asked about President Donald Trump’s response to the allegations, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said: “I don’t know.”
Though relatively unknown to the mainstream public, Porter was a close aide to both Trump and chief of staff John Kelly. Part of his role as the White House staff secretary was helping to decide what information makes it to Trump’s desk. Among other statements of support issued by Kelly and Sanders, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R.-Utah) defended Porter, who he previously employed, on Tuesday night, saying, “Shame on any publication that would print this—and shame on the politically motivated, morally bankrupt character assassins that would attempt to sully a man’s good name. I know Rob. I’ve known him for years, both as a close friend and as a personal advisor. He is kind and considerate toward all. The country needs more honest, principled people like Rob Porter, which is why I hope that this cynical campaign to discredit his character ultimately fails.” However, after the photos of Holderness’s bruises were released on Wednesday, he gave a new statement. “I am heartbroken by today’s allegations. In every interaction I’ve had with Rob, he has been courteous, professional, and respectful,” Hatch said. “My staff loved him and he was a trusted advisor. I do not know the details of Rob’s personal life. Domestic violence in any form is abhorrent. I am praying for Rob and those involved.”
Holderness met Porter, who is also Mormon, while she was a student at Wellesley College, and Porter was at Harvard. She told The Intercept that her marriage had been abusive since her honeymoon, in 2003. The incident that Holderness photographed occurred in 2005, when, “He threw me down on the bed and punched me in the face. I think he was shocked that he had lost control to that extent.” Up until then, she said, “He had always done it in a way that didn’t leave marks . . . He would get angry and throw me down on a soft surface—to his credit, it was always a soft surface like a couch or a bed—and he would lay on top of me shaking me, or rubbing an elbow or a knee into me. He graduated to choking me, not ever hard enough to make me pass out or, frankly, to leave marks, but it was frightening and dehumanizing.”
Porter’s second wife, Willoughby, did not allege physical abuse, but recounted emotional abuse and intimidation. In an April 2017 blog post, in which she declined to name Porter but which prompted The Intercept to reach out on its own accord, Willoughby described Porter’s temper: “The first time he called me a ‘fucking bitch’ was on our honeymoon . . . A month later, he physically prevented me from leaving the house. Less than two months after that,” in 2010, “I filed a protective order with the police because he punched in the glass on our front door while I was locked inside.” She also described a time in which Porter had physically dragged her from the shower to continue an argument, saying, “I think he saw the look on my face, and immediately released me and apologized. But it happened, and there was no coming back from it.” In the blog post, she referenced the abuse that Holderness had suffered before her, whom she reached out to around the time of writing, and said that Porter had blamed his behavior on his first wife and their volatile marriage. Willoughby met Porter through their church; they were married from 2009 to 2013.
The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday that Porter is now dating White House communications director Hope Hicks. Despite her characterization of Porter’s behavior, Willoughby said that she did not wish Porter professional harm: “I have the utmost respect for him professionally,” Willoughby said to The Intercept. “If there was to be a staff secretary in the Trump administration, I hope to God it is Rob. However, being charming, intelligent, charismatic, capable at work, and able to be angry and manipulative and antagonistic at home—they’re not mutually exclusive.”
As the White House prepared for the fallout from Porter’s resignation on Wednesday, it was unclear exactly how much high ranking White House officials knew about the allegations against Porter. A federal law enforcement source confirmed to CBS News that “the information was passed on to the White House,” and that Porter never received clearance, though Sanders would not comment on his status. That same source was baffled at how Porter could have acted as staff secretary, saying: “I don’t know how you would do that job without a security clearance . . . You see every single piece of paper, whether it’s from the NSC or from specific Cabinet secretaries. You have to have the highest clearance, across the board. You read every single thing, to make sure it’s ready for the president, to make sure the necessary principles have weighed in.”
The question of dubious clearance is not one new to the administration: Both Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump’s security access has been called into question, in light of, among other things, a report that Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. had narrowly avoided felony fraud charges in 2012, and Kushner’s purported ties with Russia. And it bears infinite repeating that this is not the first time that the administration has had to face accusations of abuse, at its highest levels. Donald Trump remains accused of sexual misconduct, including sexual assault, by 16 women.
