Porter ex-wife: ‘If he hasn’t already been abusive with Hope, he will’

One of the ex-wives of former White House staff secretary Rob Porter said that if he hasn’t been abusive during his relationship with communications director Hope Hicks, he soon would be.

Jennie Willoughby, who was married to Porter for four years until 2013, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she was worried for Hicks.

The Daily Mail reported earlier this week that Porter and Hicks had been dating in an explosive report detailing Porter’s ex-wives allegations of abuse by him.

{mosads}“I don’t think he’s changed,” Willoughby said. “It definitely worries me because, if I’m being frank with you, if he hasn’t already been abusive with Hope, he will.”

“And particularly now that he’s under a lot of stress and scrutiny that’s when the behaviors come out, and if he hasn’t already he will,” she continued.

Willoughby said that she doesn’t believe that Porter has “done the self-reflective work to acknowledge this issue.”

“I don’t think that he has really taken the time to deconstruct why it is that he behaves this way, and until he is able to do that, I don’t know that he has control over it,” she said.

Porter resigned from the White House on Wednesday after Willoughby and another ex-wife, Colbie Holderness, detailed allegations of physical and emotional abuse during their marriages to Porter to the Daily Mail. Porter has called the allegations false.

Top White House staffers, including chief of staff John Kelly, are under scrutiny over why Porter was allowed to remain in his position as an aide to President Trump, despite him not yet receiving a security clearance over the abuse allegations.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Kelly and White House counsel Don McGahn knew about the domestic abuse allegations against Porter months before his resignation.