A White House official said David Sorensen's position did not require a security clearance and his background check was ongoing. | M. Scott Mahaskey/POLITICO Second White House staffer resigns amid abuse allegations

A second White House official has resigned over domestic abuse allegations, according to the White House.

Speechwriter David Sorensen, who worked at the Council on Environmental Quality, part of the Executive Office of the President, submitted his resignation after being confronted by White House officials, said deputy press secretary Raj Shah.


Sorensen’s departure was first reported by the Washington Post.

It comes amid the ongoing fallout from the resignation of staff secretary Rob Porter following allegations from his two ex-wives that he was verbally and physically abusive during their marriages.

A White House official said his position did not require a security clearance and his background check was ongoing.

“Before we were contacted by the media, we learned last night that there were allegations,” Shah said in a statement. “We immediately confronted the staffer, he denied the allegations and he resigned today.”

Sorensen released a 12-page statement, published by a Daily Caller reporter, disputing the allegations.

“I want to be as unequivocal as possible: I have never committed violence of any kind against any woman in my entire life,” he said. “My accuser can produce no authentic evidence, no legal record, and no witness to support her baseless and malicious claims of domestic violence on my part.”

Sorensen, a former aide to Maine Republican Gov. Paul LePage, joined the White House last year.

The Post interviewed Sorensen’s ex-wife, Jessica Corbett, who said he had been physically and verbally abusive. Corbett told the Post that she informed the FBI of his behavior.

In a Medium post published Friday, Corbett weighed in.

“I never set out to destroy my ex-husband’s career. I felt myself lucky to escape my marriage relatively unscathed,” Corbett wrote. “I was happy to leave that ugly period in my life behind and create a new existence filled with optimism and hope. I would have left it alone but I knew deep down that other women weren’t as fortunate and that I had to do something.”

Daniel Strauss contributed to this article.