After departure of Rob Porter, speechwriter David Sorensen becomes second Trump staffer this week to leave job while facing accusations

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A White House speechwriter resigned Friday amid allegations of domestic abuse, the second such departure this week.

David Sorensen stepped down after his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett, told the Washington Post that Sorensen had physically and emotionally abused her during their two-and-a-half year marriage. Corbett said she had informed the FBI of the alleged abuse last fall. Sorensen denied the allegations, the Post reported, and claimed that he was abused by her.

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

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A White House official noted that Sorensen’s position did not require a security clearance and that his background check had not been completed. Prior to joining the Trump administration, Sorensen was a senior adviser to the Maine governor, Paul LePage.

Sorensen told the Post that he “had never committed violence of any kind against any woman in my entire life”. He also stated that he resigned because he “didn’t want the White House to have to deal with this distraction”.

Sorensen’s resignation comes just two days after Rob Porter, Trump’s staff secretary, resigned after two of his ex-wives made public allegations of physical and emotional abuse. The departure of Porter has roiled Trump’s already chaotic White House and prompted criticism of the chief of staf,f John Kelly, over his handling of the situation.

The Porter case also reignited criticism of both the president’s and the Republican party’s seeming tolerance for violence against women.

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The White House initially defended Porter, with Kelly calling him a “man of true integrity”. Even after the publication of photographs of one of Porter’s ex-wives with a black eye, Trump continued to defend Porter, stating that the aide “did a very good job” and “says he’s innocent”.

At least 19 women have accused Trump of sexual harassment or assault, and he was caught on tape boasting that he was able to “grab [women] by the pussy” due to his celebrity. Trump has repeatedly defended men accused of assaulting or abusing women, including Corey Lewandowski, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and Roy Moore.

Corbett contacted the Post before the allegations against Porter became public this week. She alleged that Sorensen ran over her foot with his car, extinguished a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall, and made her fear for her life while they were on a boat off the coast of Maine.

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“Everyone can think you’re the most wonderful guy, but you’re throwing women into walls by night,” she told the Post.



The Post interviewed two friends and associates of Corbett who said that she had told them about the abuse at the time. She also showed the Post text messages and emails from Sorensen and a photograph of an apparent cigarette burn on her hand.

Sorensen alleged that Corbett punched him multiple times and once grabbed the steering wheel while he was driving on a highway. He also provided the Post with photographs of his own scrapes and bruises.

“This incident is an opportunity to highlight the grossly underreported and unacknowledged issue of female-on-male domestic violence,” he told the Post in a statement.

The couple divorced in September.

Sorensen worked at the Council on Environmental Quality, which is part of the Executive Office of the President. A Maine newspaper, the Portland Press Herald, noted in a May 2017 article on Sorensen’s decision to join the Trump administration that the Republican had “a reputation as an aggressive and sometimes combative political operative”.

The Guardian was not immediately able to reach Sorensen or Corbett.