WASHINGTON: A second White House staffer in a week resigned on Friday over domestic abuse claims, in a widening scandal that called into question the president’s judgement and tainted his chief of staff John Kelly and long-time aide Hope Hicks.

White House speechwriter David Sorensen denied his wife’s claims of abuse, but resigned — hours after President Donald Trump was criticised for wishing staff secretary Rob Porter a “wonderful career” after he too resigned amid similar accusations.

Porter — who denies abuse alleged by two ex-wives, one of whom released a photo of herself with a black eye — worked at the heart of the White House throughout the first year of Trump’s administration, despite being denied full security clearance.

He only stepped down from his post on Wednesday after the accusations became public.

Trump, who has himself been accused of sexual harassment or assault by two dozen women, fuelled the scandal by praising Porter and suggesting he had a bright future.

He made no mention of the ex-wives or the alleged domestic abuse.

“We certainly wish him well, and it’s a tough time for him,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “He did a very good job when he was in the White House. And we hope he has a wonderful career and he will have a great career ahead of him.”

“As you probably know, he says he’s innocent, and I think you have to remember that,” he said.

That prompted a sharp rebuke from Democrats like Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, who slammed the White House’s “culture of misogyny”.

Sorensen’s ex-wife Jessica Corbett told The Washington Post that while they were married, he ran a car over her foot, extinguished a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall and grabbed her by her hair, but that she did not report the incidents due to her then-husband’s connections to law enforcement.

While Sorensen’s post as a Council on Environmental Quality speechwriter did not require security clearance, Corbett said she had described his behavior to the FBI as it conducted an ongoing background check of Sorensen in the fall.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2018