{"id":400187,"date":"2018-02-09T19:49:10","date_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=400187"},"modified":"2018-02-09T19:49:10","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T19:49:10","slug":"trump-praises-aide-accused-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=400187","title":{"rendered":"Trump praises aide accused of abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump has praised a former aide who resigned this week amid allegations of domestic abuse.<\/p>\n

“We wish him well,” he said in his first public remarks about the claims against ex-White House staff secretary Rob Porter. “He worked very hard.”<\/p>\n

Questions are being asked about who in the White House knew what and when about the Porter accusations.<\/p>\n

One ex-wife says he gave her a black eye. Another filed a restraining order, she says. Mr Porter, 40, denies it.<\/p>\n

Despite the accusations, he received interim security clearance to act as gatekeeper to the US president.<\/p>\n

\"ColbieColbie Holderness alleged Mr Porter punched her in the face on holiday in Florence, Italy<\/span><\/figure>\n

Speaking in the Oval Office on Friday, Mr Trump said: “We found out about it recently and I was surprised by it but we certainly wish him well and it’s a tough time for him.<\/p>\n

“He did a very good job while when he was in the White House.<\/p>\n

“And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him.<\/p>\n

“But it was very sad when we heard about it and certainly he’s also very sad now.<\/p>\n

\"MrMr Trump is seen walking with Mr Porter at the White House in December 2017<\/span><\/figure>\n

“He also, as you probably know, says he’s innocent and I think you have to remember that.”<\/p>\n

White House communications director Hope Hicks’ handling of the controversy has reportedly displeased Mr Trump.<\/p>\n

She has recently been in a relationship with Mr Porter.<\/p>\n

According to CNN, Mr Trump believes the 29-year-old aide put her own interests above the president’s.<\/p>\n

According to CBS News, Mr Porter approached White House Counsel Don McGahn in January 2017 to inform him there could be derogatory information in his background check for security clearance.<\/p>\n

Without being specific, the aide reportedly said he expected his ex-wives to say unflattering things about him to investigators.<\/p>\n

Mr McGahn told him to await the results of the FBI background checks process.<\/p>\n

In June 2017, Mr Porter’s preliminary file was sent from the FBI to the White House security office, containing the abuse allegations from his ex-wives.<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/span><\/figure>\n
Jennifer Willoughby told the Daily Mail she filed a protective order against Mr Porter<\/figure>\n

In September that year, Mr Porter told Mr McGahn he had been interviewed by the FBI a second time, according to CBS.<\/p>\n

In November, Mr McGahn received a call from Mr Porter’s ex-girlfriend, Samantha Davis, informing him of physical violence claims against the aide by his former spouses.<\/p>\n

Mr McGahn then told White House Chief of Staff John Kelly there was an issue with Mr Porter’s security clearance, though he was vague, reports CBS.<\/p>\n

The White House counsel reportedly told Mr Kelly Mr Porter’s ex-wives were saying things the aide denied.<\/p>\n

Mr Porter also told Mr Kelly his ex-wives were saying false things about him.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

US President Donald Trump has praised a former aide who resigned this week amid allegations of domestic abuse. “We wish him well,” he said in his first public remarks about the claims against ex-White House staff secretary Rob Porter. “He worked very hard.” Questions are being asked about who in the White House knew what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":388256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[3836,109],"class_list":["post-400187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-abuse","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=400187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/388256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=400187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=400187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=400187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}