Donald Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly admitted Friday that the White House ‘did not cover itself in glory’ over its handling of the departure of alleged wife-beater Rob Porter.
But the retired general raised new questions about his own conduct by claiming he had no prior knowledge of accusations of physical abuse, and instead claimed that he believed Porter was simply involved in a ‘messy divorce.’
In a rare meeting with reporters in his office, Kelly acknowledged that the FBI had provided information to the White House about the accused wife-beater who served as President Donald Trump’s staff secretary for more than a year.
But he insisted: ‘I don’t know what information. I don’t know if there was anything in there about messy divorces or whatever, but we had received some information.’
Sources have told DailyMail.com that Kelly got an FBI briefing in November about information the FBI had collected in their background check investigation of Porter, telling him the aide’s security clearance would be denied because his past spousal abuse made him a blackmail risk.
Trump’s Chief of Staff John Kelly acknowledged on Friday that the FBI had briefed the White House about accused domestic abuser Rob Porter, who served as Trump’s staff secretary for more than a year – but denied knowing the specifics; sources tell DailyMail.com that he was briefed personally last November
Porter, shown with now-former girlfriend and outgoing White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, was forced out of his sensitive job after DailyMail.com published his ex-wives damning accounts of physical abuse
Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, (left) told DailyMail.com that he repeatedly punched and choked her; DailyMail.com told the White House about this photo on the morning of February 7, but Kelly claimed Friday that he knew about it a day earlier – and yet still allowed a glowing statement about Porter to be read to the press under his name
Kelly never told the president what he had learned, but White House Counsel Don McGhan and Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin were also in the loop, sources said.
Trump’s chief also told reporters that he fired Porter just hours after DailyMail.com first gave the White House a description of the story that would run on the evening of February 6.
But Kelly claimed the story was simply one of ’emotional abuse.’
That is at odds with what DailyMail.com told the White House at 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday, February 6, spending 20 minutes in Sarah Sanders’ office and detailing Willoughby’s claims including physical and emotional abuse – and a restraining order she had obtained against Porter.
Kelly, however, said Friday: ‘The initial accusation was essentially a messy divorce, “He yelled at me a lot,” so I put out – he resigned, I put out a statement of support for him.’
Porter, Kelly claimed, denied the allegations at the time.
‘I ask the guy, he says it’s untrue, but [I] suggest to him certainly that it’s time to go. He says, “You’re right, I’ll resign”,’ Kelly recalled.
In that statement of support, provided to DailyMail.com shortly before 7:00 p.m., Kelly called Porter ‘a man of true integrity and honor.’
The DailyMail.com story was published at 7:09 p.m. It revealed that Willoughby had claimed Porter once physically yanked her, naked, from a shower and punched out a glass pane on their front door in anger – an allegation DailyMail.com had already described to the White House in exacting detail.
But Kelly claimed Friday that he learned of Porter’s first wife Colbie Holderness’ allegations of repeated physical harm around 6:00 that evening.
‘And an hour later [I] find out now there’s a second report, still not in the press, still no pictures. Just an inquiry by someone probably in this room that said, “Hey, his first wife, 15 years ago, says that there’s physical abuse”,’ he told reporters.
‘Now it’s that there’s physical abuse,’ he said.
Kelly said Friday that this led to further action by him against Porter, and denied he should have stepped down over the scandal.
‘I meet with him to confirm, in no uncertain terms, he’s resigning. And he says, “Yes, of course.” He tells everybody. In two hours … he’s resigned. So I have absolutely nothing to be, to even consider resigning over.’
It is unclear if any publication approached the White House on February 6 with an allegation of domestic violence committed against Porter’s first ex-wife, Colbie Holderness. DailyMail.com did not.
Early in the morning of February 7, at 1.53 a.m., The Intercept tweeted photographs of Holderness, showing her with a black eye, taken during a vacation in Italy when the couple were married and said it planned to publish a story alleging domestic abuse later in the day.
At 8:30 a.m. DailyMail.com approached the White House to alert the Press Office to the publication of a second story, detailing Holderness’ allegations and including the photos.
Kelly’s glowing statement defending Porter, issued at 7:00 p.m. Tuesday night, was still in effect the following afternoon when Press Secretary Sarah Sanders read it aloud from the briefing room podium before confirming Porter’s resignation publicly.
The general was asked Friday why the statement was not withdrawn.
‘Right. We didn’t cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that on Wednesday morning. It was confusing,’ he said.
It wasn’t until 9:29 p.m. on Wednesday, long after both DailyMail.com stories ran, that Kelly changed his tune, saying in a subsequent statement that he was ‘shocked by the new allegations released today against Rob Porter. ‘There is no place for domestic violence in our society.’
That statement – describing Holderness’ allegations as coming on February 7 – is entirely at odds with his statement Friday that he learned of them the day before.
Kelly also suggested the White House continued to defend Porter on February 7, despite his resignation the day before, because Porter hadn’t told the West Wing’s inner circle that he had quit.
‘It’s my understand[ing] Rob came back’ that Wednesday ‘and didn’t tell anyone he’d resigned,’ Kelly said.
‘So there were people here that were I think still trying to help Rob through this. He had not told them.’
In fact the White House arranged for Porter to meet four reporters at 1:30 p.m. on that day, February 7, to defend himself – among them the New York Times and the Washington Post.