White House ‘wife-beater’ quitting post

A SENIOR White House official with a violent past resigned Wednesday amid allegations he abused his two ex-wives.

Staff secretary Rob Porter, who worked closely with chief of staff John Kelly to control the flow of paper to President Trump’s desk, will step down, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

The allegations by Porter’s ex-wives were first revealed by the Daily Mail, which also reported he was dating Trump’s communications director, Hope Hicks. Hicks coordinated the White House pushback against the story, CNN reported.

Colbie Holderness, Porter’s first wife, provided The Intercept with a 2005 photo (right) showing a bruised right eye, which she said was the result of a punch thrown by the White House staffer.

He threw the punch while they were on vacation in Florence — and it was the only time he hit her, she said.

“I think it shocked him and it shocked me,” she told CNN.

But Holderness said her husband was abusive in other ways.

“The thing he would do most frequently is he would throw me down on a bed and he would just put his body weight on me and he’d be yelling at me, but as he was yelling he’d me grinding an elbow or knee into my body to emphasize his anger,” she told CNN.

Porter’s second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, said she received an emergency protective order against him due to physical and psychological abuse.

Holderness’ photo and other evidence was provided to the FBI as it conducted a background check on the 40-year-old Porter (right) related to his security clearance at the White House, Intercept.

Porter worked in the West Wing and had access to the President’s correspondence — but did not receive a full security clearance.

Willoughby said Porter had blamed his bouts of rage on his first failed marriage. She said he couldn’t even control his anger on their honeymoon in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in 2009.

Porter once dragged Willoughby naked from a shower by the shoulders and yelled at her — the lone time he became physically abusive, she told the Daily Mail. A third woman, who claimed to be Porter’s girlfriend in 2016, contacted Holderness and Willoughby, seeking advice on how to leave him, CNN reported, without revealing her name.

“Rob was abusive, degrading, a liar and a cheater, and during the course of my relationship with him, I found out that he was to others, too,” the woman wrote. “I am just searching for someone who might be able to relate to the hell I have gone through.”

Porter denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of a “coordinated smear campaign.”

“These outrageous allegations are simply false. I took the photos given to the media nearly 15 years ago, and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what is being described,” he said in a statement read by Sanders on Wednesday.

Kelly and others in the West Wing encouraged Porter to stay on the job despite the allegations.

In a statement to the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Kelly called Porter a “man of true integrity and honor, and I can’t say enough good things about him . . . . I am proud to serve alongside him.”

Sanders said Wednesday that Porter had not been asked to resign.

“The President and chief of staff have full confidence in his abilities and his performance,” she

said. according to The