‘JILT’ BY ASSOCIATION
Hicks' jealous ex'leaked' Don aide's wife-beat dirt
Jealousy over Rob Porter dating his ex-girlfriend Hope Hicks likely led Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s former campaign manager, to leak the wife-beating allegations that ultimately forced Porter’s resignation, according to a new report.
Porter’s second ex-wife, Jennifer Willoughby, told New York magazine that Porter in January desperately tried to get her to remove a blog post in which she accused him of physical abuse because he feared someone was “going to send it to the media.”
“He did not name names, but he implied that there was a former staffer from the White House who was unhappy with him and was out to get him and take him down and somehow had gotten wind of my blog post,” Willoughby told the magazine.
But while Willoughby initially thought her ex-hubby’s antagonist was ousted White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, she told New York she later figured out Porter was referring to Lewandowski — despite the fact he was never part of the administration.
Porter resigned as Trump’s staff secretary last month following revelations he couldn’t pass an FBI background check due to domestic-violence allegations by Willoughby and his first wife, Colbie Holderness. Porter has denied those allegations.
Porter, 40, and then-White House communications director Hicks, 29, broke up amid the scandal. They had been dating since the fall.
Sources told New York mag that Lewandowski, 44, remained fixated on Hicks following their own split — which, as Page Six exclusively reported, involved a public May 2016 spat that saw Hicks scream, “I am done with you!” on 61st Street and Park Avenue.
In the fall, one source said, Lewandowski began trying to find out whom Hicks was dating, adding: “I think that he thinks he should control her.”
Another source, who worked with Hicks before the campaign, said Lewandowski “has, sort of, Single White Male characteristics” — an apparent reference to the 1992 thriller “Single White Female,” about a woman obsessed with her roommate.
A third source, who has worked with Lewandowski and is close to the White House, also said Lewandowski still had “raw feelings” from his relationship with Hicks.
“He got wind that she was dating Porter, and he could not handle that,” the source said.
The situation is complicated by the fact Porter was involved with another White House official be- fore he began dating Hicks — and Lewandowski shares a DC town house with a former campaign operative who worked in the same agency as that woman, according to New York magazine.
Hicks, a model turned Trump confidante, announced her resignation as White House communications director last month, one day after testifying before the House Intelligence Committee, which was investigating Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Hicks reportedly admitted telling “white lies” for the president, but insisted she never lied about possible campaign ties to Russia.
Hicks previously considered quitting in early August and again in early December, according to New York mag.
Lewandowski declined to answer any questions despite repeated requests, the magazine reported.