A White House official on Tuesday told Axios that Chief of Staff John Kelly’s “coverup” of the Rob Porter scandal is “unravelling.”
The official made the remark following testimony from FBI Director Christopher Wray that called to question the White House’s public timeline of the Trump administration’s response to Porter.
Speaking before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday, Wray undercut White House aides who claim they weren’t aware of the extent of allegations against Porter until last week. According to Wray, “the FBI submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March, and then a completed background investigation in late July.”
Wray added the department later “received requests for follow-up inquiry, and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November and we administratively closed the file in January.”
"Wray’s FBI timeline makes one thing clear: the Kelly coverup is unraveling right before our eyes," the White House official said.
Last week, two senior White House officials told the Washington Post that Kelly told staffers in a meeting to say “he took action to remove Porter within 40 minutes of learning that abuse allegations from two ex-wives were credible.” As the Post noted, that timeline “contradicts both the public record and accounts from numerous other White House officials.”
Onetime White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci also hit Kelly over Wray’s testimony, tweeting that the president’s chief of staff “must resign.”
