White House aide who resigned amid abuse allegations was a former BigLaw lawyer and 'rising star'
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A White House aide who resigned on Wednesday amid allegations of domestic abuse had a Harvard law degree and a BigLaw resume.
Rob Porter was staff secretary, serving as a gatekeeper in deciding which documents reached President Donald Trump, report the Washington Post and the New York Times. CNN and the New York Times both described him as a “rising star.”
Porter said in a statement that the allegations by two former wives were “outrageous” and “simply false.”
His first wife said Porter had been “verbally, emotionally and physically abusive” and had once punched her in the face. His second wife had written a blog post, without naming Porter, that said her husband had called her a name, physically prevented her from leaving the house and punched in a glass door in her home when she was locked inside. She obtained a temporary emergency protective order after the incident with the door.
The protective order reportedly prevented Porter from getting a full security clearance, Politico reports, relying on an anonymous source.
Porter once worked as an associate at Sidley Austin, according to Above the Law and a Deseret News article written when he was named to the White House job. He is a Harvard law graduate with a master’s in philosophy from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He clerked for Judge Thomas Griffith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Porter had worked as chief of staff for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, before joining the Trump administration.
