“I have absolutely nothing to even consider resigning over," John Kelly said of the scandal surrounding Rob Porter (right). | Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images John Kelly says he never considered resigning over Porter episode Porter's resignation also cast a spotlight on the number of Trump administration staff members working on interim security clearances, including Jared Kushner.

White House chief of staff John Kelly offered on Friday his own timeline of the resignation of former Trump administration staffer Rob Porter, detailing for reporters when he became aware of allegations of domestic abuse against Porter and the White House’s handling of his resignation.

Kelly told the White House press pool on Friday that he only became aware of the accusations against Porter on Feb. 6, the day before the then-White House staff secretary’s resignation became public. He blamed the dueling statements issued by the administration, one that spoke warmly of Porter and another that featured more critical language, on the cascading nature of the reports regarding the former staff secretary.


Kelly, who told reporters last month that he was willing to resign over his handling of the Porter episode, said Friday that he never considered stepping down over the incident.

“I have absolutely nothing to even consider resigning over," he said.

Kelly also confirmed the account of FBI Director Christopher Wray, that the bureau had submitted information about Porter months before the allegations were reported by the media.

The episode has raised lingering questions about the management style of Kelly, brought in as chief of staff to instill order in a chaotic West Wing previously led by Reince Priebus.

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Kelly, a former Marine Corps general initially tapped by Trump to be secretary of homeland security, brought with him a sterling reputation from his career in military service that has been tarnished somewhat by his tenure in the Trump administration, not only by the Porter incident, but by his feud with Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), whom Kelly accused of making self-aggrandizing remarks at the dedication of an FBI facility in Florida. Video of the event later showed Kelly's version of the event to be inaccurate, a misrepresentation for which the chief of staff has refused to apologize.

The chief of staff echoed the sentiment expressed by others inside the White House that the allegations against Porter had come as a shock because the former staff secretary's behavior inside the Trump administration was consistently professional. Like deputy White House press secretary Raj Shah, who conceded at the time that "we all could have done better over the last few hours, or the last few days, in dealing with this situation," Kelly said the White House did not handle the episode well.

“The man we all knew, it was an absolute shock. His religion, his focus on work, etc. It was just a shock to us all. The initial accusation was, messy divorce, he yelled at me a lot. He resigned, I put out a statement of support for him, and an hour later find out now there’s a second report still not in the press, still no pictures,” Kelly said. “We didn’t cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that on Wednesday morning; it was confusing.”

Porter’s employment in the West Wing, despite allegations of abuse from two ex-wives, one of whom had been granted a protective order against him, prompted criticism directed at the Trump administration, which struggled to offer a consistent explanation of why Porter was working in the White House — with the requisite security clearance — despite his wives’ accusations of domestic abuse, including verbal and physical assault.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders initially said Porter’s security clearance process was ongoing, only to be contradicted the next day by Wray, who said the bureau had submitted information to the White House months earlier.

Kelly said Friday that he and White House counsel Don McGahn were not aware that the FBI had submitted what it considered its final report on Porter, information he said “was a shock for me certainly.”



Porter's resignation also cast a wider spotlight on the number of Trump administration staff members working on interim security clearances, including the president's son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.

Kelly recalled “having my eyes opened” last September that so many in the White House had not been granted permanent clearances and that the number of staffers working under such circumstances was “more people than I was comfortable with.”

Kushner and other White House staffers working on an interim basis at the Top Secret/SCI level had their clearances downgraded last week to the Secret level. The reduction in Kushner's security clearance was accompanied by a rare statement from Kelly, who said Kushner would be able to continue work on his foreign policy portfolio.