President Donald Trump broke his silence Tuesday on the revelations that former White House aide Rob Porter allegedly abused two of his ex-wives.
.@POTUS: “I am totally opposed to domestic violence of any kind”
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) February 14, 2018
Porter resigned Feb. 7 after a pair of stories detailing his alleged abuse of his ex-wives and former girlfriend. The stories included graphic images of abuse. The White House has since faced questions as to how Porter was allowed to remain in his role for so long and how these allegations made it past an FBI background check.
White House deputy press secretary Raj Shah told reporters on Feb. 8, “[Porter’s] background investigation was ongoing. He was operating on an interim security clearance. His clearance was never denied, and he resigned.”
Shah’s claim was contradicted by FBI Director Christopher Wray on Tuesday. “The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July,” Wray stated, adding “soon thereafter we received requests for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November.”
“And then we administratively closed the file in January and then earlier this month we received some additional information, and we passed that on as well,” he said.