A second White House staffer has resigned this week due to allegations of domestic assault. The first was White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter, who stepped down despite public support from President Trump. The second is David Sorensen, a speechwriter who worked closely with Senior Advisor Stephen Miller.
In a report from The Washington Post, Sorensen’s ex-wife, Jessica Corbett, claimed that he was “violent and emotionally abusive during their turbulent two-and-a-half-year marriage.” She reported his behavior to the FBI last fall while his background check was underway, claiming that 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.” He was a top policy adviser to Republican Maine Gov. Paul LePage at the time and had connection to law officials, which Corbett said caused her to keep the abuse quiet.
White House officials report that they learned of Corbett’s allegations on Thursday night. According to spokesman Raj Shah, “We immediately confronted the staffer, he denied the allegations and he resigned today.”
Sorensen denies the allegations, claiming that Corbett was in fact the one who victimized him, calling it “an opportunity to highlight the grossly underreported and unacknowledged issue of female-on-male domestic violence.” However, he has stepped down from his position nonetheless. Sorensen told The Post that 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.”
(Via The Washington Post)