It seems the White House just can’t stop dissembling about Rob Porter.
And, now, it’s gotten so bad that the Trump administration was just called out by their own FBI.
Team Trump’s story regarding now-former aide Porter was shot down by the FBI Tuesday, with Director Christopher Wray giving very different information to the Senate Intelligence Committee than what administration officials have provided to the media regarding the ongoing .
1. The Ongoing Investigation That Actually Wasn’t
According to White House spokesperson Raj Shah, the FBI still had an open security background investigation into Rob Porter at the time of his resignation last week over domestic abuse allegations.
Shah said, of Porter. “[His] background investigation was ongoing, his clearance was never denied, and he resigned.” The FBI directly contradicted this claim on Tuesday morning.
Director Wray said the bureau advanced a partial report on the Porter investigation in March of 2017 and completed their security background investigation in July of that year.
2. There Were Two Complete (and Telling) Investigations
Wray later noted in comments to reporters, “Soon thereafter we received a request for a follow up. We did that.” The follow-up investigation was then submitted to the Trump administration in November 2017 and the Porter file was administratively closed in January 2018.
Both of Porter’s ex-wives shared their experiences of verbal and physical abuse at Porter’s hands with FBI investigators during those background checks.
For those unfamiliar with basic math: the Trump administration–by way of Don McGahn and/or John Kelly–were fully aware of those abuse allegations for at least two full months before the story broke.
3. Recent Knowledge That’s Actually Old News
The FBI’s Tuesday accounting of the Porter investigation timeline also directly contradicts current White House claims about the Trump administration’s knowledge of Porter’s alleged history of domestic abuse.
To wit, the Trump White House now claims they were just recently made aware of the allegations against Porter.
Wray dashed that storyline too, noting, “[E]arlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well.”
Law&Crime reached out to White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for comment and clarification, but no response was forthcoming at the time of publication.
[image via Zach Gibson-Pool/Getty Images]
Follow Colin Kalmbacher on Twitter: @colinkalmbacher
Editor’s note: this story was edited for formatting after being published.