For the second time this week, a White House staffer has resigned from his position amid allegations that he was physically and emotionally abusive to a former spouse.
The Washington Post reports that White House speechwriter David Sorensen, who worked with senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, resigned Friday as the Post was preparing a story about abuse claims made by his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett—who told the Post that like the ex-wives of Rob Porter, she had reported the abuse to the FBI when they were conducting a background check of Sorensen last fall.
Corbett claims that Sorensen was both physically and emotional abusive during their two-and-a-half-year marriage. Sorensen denies those allegations and claims that he was victimized by Corbett.
The White House says that it learned of the allegations against Sorensen on Thursday night, before the Post made inquiries about it.
In a statement Friday evening, deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah said, “We immediately confronted the staffer; he denied the allegations and he resigned today.”
Sorensen told the Post in a text message that he resigned because he “didn’t want the White House to have to deal with this distraction.”
“It should be able to focus on continuing President Trump’s historic accomplishments for the American people,” Sorensen said in the text.
Mm-hm. Sure, Jan.
Two days ago, former White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter resigned after allegations that he was abusive to two ex-wives were made public. White House officials and the FBI knew about the allegations, but Porter was allowed to remain in his position anyway.
According to administration officials, Sorensen’s position as a speechwriter with the Council on Environmental Quality, a division of the Executive Office of the President, did not require a security clearance, and his background check was still going on. The FBI declined the Post’s requests for comment.
From the Post:
Corbett first contacted The Post a week before Porter’s case became public. She said that during her marriage to Sorensen, he ran a car over her foot, put out a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall and grasped her menacingly by her hair while they were alone on their boat in remote waters off Maine’s coast, an incident she said left her fearing for her life.
And:
She said she did not report her abuse allegations to police because of Sorensen’s connections to law enforcement officials.
Corbett said several of the incidents involved alcohol and acknowledged that she slapped Sorensen a number of times after he called her a vulgar term.
Meanwhile, Sorensen released a lengthy statement in which he said that he “never committed violence of any kind against any woman in my entire life.”
“In fact, I was the victim of repeated physical violence during our marriage, not her,” he said, adding that he had consulted with an attorney and was “considering legal options to address her defamation.”
He said, she said. What is the truth?
I personally believe it is unlikely that anyone would resign if the allegations against them were false, but that is my opinion as a person who has never been accused of physically abusing a partner.
This administration seems to be full of serial abusers. Shit rolls downhill, and that hill starts at the presidency of the United States.
Gross.