Head of FBI contradicts White House over Porter

Wray says security check about domestic violence was completed, forwarded

WASHINGTON — The director of the FBI cast new doubt on the White House’s version of when officials learned of a key aide’s history of domestic violence allegations, saying Tuesday that the bureau completed its security check on Rob Porter, President Trump’s staff secretary, last summer.

The issue of who in the White House knew about the allegations has festered for a week, in large part because officials have offered conflicting timelines and failed to fully explain how Porter kept his position in the West Wing, which included access to classified documents.

The furor has rekindled questions about the competence of the White House staff and the president’s willingness to disbelieve accusations by women of abuse at the hands of powerful men. It has also left White

House chief of staff John Kelly increasingly isolated.

White House officials have maintained that they didn’t know all the details of the accusations against Porter and wanted to leave him in place because the investigation hadn’t been finished.

But FBI Director Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, told the Senate intelligence committee that the bureau provided a partial report on Porter last March, submitted a completed investigation in late July and sent requested follow-up information in November.

“We administratively closed the file in January, and then earlier this month we received some additional information, and we passed that along as well,” Wray said.

He declined to give details of what the FBI reported.

Wray’s account is sure to add to the controversy over the decision by Kelly and others on Trump’s staff to defend Porter after the Daily Mail first reported two ex-wives’ accounts a week ago. Porter was forced to resign last week after a photo surfaced of one of his ex-wives with a black eye. Both women have publicly said they reported his physical abuse to the FBI early last year.

After reports of the alleged abuse became public, Kelly issued a statement praising Porter as a friend and confidante of “true integrity and honor.”

White House officials have claimed that they handled Porter’s case in accordance with long-standing procedures. Officials of previous administrations have disputed that.

“I see a lot of people here dropping the ball,” said Leon Panetta, whose numerous White House positions included chief of staff for President Bill Clinton and CIA director for President Barack Obama.

Panetta said intelligence officials briefing top staffers should have raised more questions about why Porter and other officials with access to secret information were working for such a long time with only interim security clearances. He said Kelly and Don McGahn, the White House counsel, either failed to “jump up and down” to resolve the issue quickly, or they knew about the FBI’s findings and deliberately let Porter’s case linger.

Typically, officials in sensitive positions are initially given interim security clearance while investigators seek out friends, exspouses and others for interviews. Like a number of White House officials — including Jared Kushner, the president’s son-inlaw — Porter never received a permanent clearance.

In a news briefing hours after Wray’s sworn testimony, press secretary Sarah Sanders sought to shift responsibility to the White House personnel security office, which is staffed by career officials. They received the FBI’s reports but “had not made a final recommendation” by the time Porter resigned last week, Sanders said.

Sanders stood by the White House’s earlier statements that Kelly only recently learned of the nature of the charges but kept a degree of distance between herself and the chief of staff. “I can only give you the best information that I have, and that’s my understanding,” she told reporters.

She would not say who allowed Porter to stay in his role for more than a year without permanent clearance or answer whether the personnel security office communicated with Kelly and other top officials as the FBI began reporting its findings. “I can't say definitively, but I'm not aware of any communication,” she said.

Last week, the White House offered an account which differed from the sequence of events described Tuesday.

The issue is awkward for Trump, who famously boasted of assaulting women on an “Access Hollywood” recording that was leaked before the 2016 election. More than a dozen women have accused Trump of sexual misconduct during his years in business, allegations that he has denied.

Wray also appeared to challenge another Trump claim during his testimony.

Trump tweeted last week that a controversial memo issued by Republicans on the House intelligence committee “totally vindicates” him in the Russia probe, Wray repeated the FBI judgment that memo was inaccurate because it left out important facts.

He also took exception to Trump’s attacks on the FBI as politically biased and “in tatters.” The FBI rank and file are “the finest group of professionals and public servants I could hope to work for,” he said.