FBI Director Christopher Wray Contradicts White House Statements About Rob Porter’s Alleged Abuse

Christopher Wray, the FBI Director, contradicted the White House’s stance of when it learned of former White House Secretary  Rob Porter’s alleged instances of domestic abuse against his two ex wives that caused him to resign.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders had said Monday that the White House learned of the allegations last Tuesday, and that the next day his his resignation was announced and accepted.

But today, Wray said that the FBI had informed the White House earlier of the issues with giving Porter full security clearance.

“I’m quite confident that in this particular instance, the FBI followed the established protocol,” Wray said. “The FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July. Then soon thereafter, we received requests for a follow up inquiry, and we did the follow up and provided that information in November, and then we administratively closed the file in January.”

When asked about Wray’s statements during Tuesday’s White House press briefing, Sanders said the White House Personnel Security Office, staffed by career officials, had received information about Porter last year and what they thought to be a final background investigation report in November.

“But they had not made a final recommendation for adjudication to the White House because the process was still ongoing when Rob Porter resigned,” Sanders said. “In the view of Personnel Security Office, the FBI’s July report required significant additional investigatory field work before personnel security office could begin to evaluate the information for adjudication. As Director Wray said, information was still coming to the White House personnel security office in February.”

Sanders continued to say that the White House did not receive paperwork, though Wray said the FBI sent it to the White House. Sanders said the Personnel Security Office was the part of the White House that received the paperwork.

“Again, the White House — I think you need to be very clear about — there’s multiple groups here,” Sanders said. “The White House Personnel Security Office, which is staffed by career officials would have — may have — received information, but they had not completed their process and made a recommendation to the White House for adjudication.”