Here’s what we know.
The White House changed its story on when it knew about allegations of domestic violence made against former White House staff secretary Rob Porter three times in 24 hours last week. On Tuesday, the FBI blew up the timeline again by saying that the White House knew the severity of the allegations in the summer of 2017.
And on Thursday, CNN reported that Porter told one of his ex-wives that he had been made aware by White House staff that his security clearance was being delayed because of concerns that Porter was “violent” — in September 2017, five months before White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told the media he had been made fully aware of the allegations.
Last week, White House staff secretary Rob Porter left the White House after allegations of domestic violence made by his ex-wives became public. He held a senior position within the White House despite lacking a permanent security clearance, traveling with the president internationally, presenting him with confidential documents, and helping to write Trump’s first State of the Union
On February 8, deputy press secretary Raj Shah said the FBI never completed a background check into Porter — which would have uncovered a 2010 emergency protective order obtained by Porter’s former wife, Jennifer Willoughby:
But the FBI told Congress this week that’s not at all what happened. In a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing held Tuesday morning, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) that not only was the background check on Porter completed, it was completed in July 2017. The White House then asked for additional details, which it received in November.
“I’m quite confident that in this particular instance, the FBI followed the established protocols,” Wray said.
With Wray’s statements and with new details from Porter’s former wife, there are at least five different accounts, from the Trump White House, the FBI and Rob Porter himself, with four separate timelines of what the White House knew and when they knew it:
Here’s the order in which events really happened — and how the White House has changed its story.
It’s been more than a week since the first allegations against Porter and the White House still hasn’t answered critical questions about his exit from the White House.
