The White House has
been dogged for days now by questions stemming from allegations of domestic
abuse from two of White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter’s ex-wives. White
House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said action was taken last week when officials
became aware of the allegations and that the investigation was “ongoing”.
During a Senate Intelligence
Committee hearing on Tuesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified that his
agency informed the White House as early as March 2017 about at least some of
the findings of a background check on Porter as part of his security clearance
application.
Responding to a
question from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) during the Committee hearing, Wray spelled
out the process in which the FBI briefed the White House while Porter was
operating with a temporary clearance and had access to some of America's most
closely held secrets.
“The FBI submitted a
partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed
background investigation in late July,” Wray said, adding that “soon thereafter
we received requests for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and
provided that information in November.”
Director of National
Intelligence Dan Coats said Tuesday, without mentioning Porter by name, that
while it can be “necessary to have some type of preliminary clearance to fill a
slot, people with such temporary statuses shouldn't have the same contact with
classified material as people with permanent clearances. Access has to be
limited in terms of the kinds of information they can be in a position to
receive or not receive,” Coats said.
According to The
Washington Post, White House Counsel Donald McGahn knew one year ago Porter’s
ex-wives were prepared to make damaging accusations about him that could
threaten his security clearance but allowed him to serve as an influential
gatekeeper and aide to President Trump without investigating the accusations,
according to people familiar with the matter.
Emily Jashinsky, a
former spokeswoman for Young America’s Foundation noted,
“No matter how decent McGahn and Kelly thought Porter to be, and no matter how
convincing they found his denials, pursuing the truth about someone with so
much responsibility in the White House should have been a top priority, if even
to dismiss the allegations and take steps to ensure he wasn't susceptible to
blackmail, or wasn't a threat to any of their female staff. We need more
information, but what we already know is disappointing.
The Porter story has
undermined John Kelly’s credibility and reputation. This scandal is sucking all the oxygen out of
the room.
Between you and me, I
don’t trust Christopher Wray. He strikes me as being a bit of a weasel, but
lawdy, Maxine Waters is buying what he’s selling:
This is a must see rant from Rep. Maxine Waters where she tears #JohnKelly and #RobPorter to pieces on #AllIn pic.twitter.com/0KhoPNRVgK— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 14, 2018
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