The bombshell DailyMail.com story about a top Trump White House aide abusing his wife ‘dominated’ the White House for nearly two weeks in 2018, Jared Kushner reveals in his memoir.
The exclusive DailyMail.com report about Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary, attacking ex-wife Jennifer Willoughby caused panic for 10 days, Trump’s son-in-law writes in the upcoming book.
Willoughby told DailyMail.com that their marriage was ‘very toxic,’ detailing how he ‘pulled me, naked and dripping from the shower, to yell at me.’
Porter allegedly screamed at Willoughby and called her a ‘b***h’ and a ‘liar,’ and a year after marrying him she took out a protective order to stop the abuse.
In excerpts of Kushner’s memoir obtained by DailyMail.com, he writes that the story caused headaches throughout the White House as Porter was operating on a temporary security clearance and the abuse history should have come up in his background screening.
In Breaking History: A White House Memoir, which will be released next month, Kushner also claims that Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly once pushed his wife Ivanka aside after a heated argument.
Kelly has strongly denied the claims.
Jared Kushner’s upcoming memoir promises to take a look inside the Trump White House from the perspective of someone who was deep in the former President’s inner circle – a man who was a senior adviser and is his son-in-law
DailyMail.com revealed in 2018 that top Trump aide Rob Porter had abused his ex-wife Jennifer Willoughby and she had taken out a protective order against him
Kushner also claims that Trump’s former Chief of Staff John Kelly once pushed his wife Ivanka aside after a heated argument. Kelly has strongly denied the claims
Breaking History promises to take a look inside the Trump White House from the perspective of someone who was deep in the former President’s inner circle – a man who was a senior adviser and his son-in-law.
Breaking History: A White House Memoir hits stands August 23
Kushner writes that in early 2018 the Trump White House was ‘beginning to rack up policy victories’ including a massive tax cut and appointing a record number of federal judges.
‘But the momentum evaporated on Tuesday, February 6, 2018, when the Daily Mail broke the first installment in a story that would dominate the White House for the next ten days,’ Kushner writes.
‘Staff secretary Rob Porter, a clean-cut Harvard alumnus and Rhodes Scholar, had allegedly abused his former wife.
‘Porter managed all paper flow to the president. (Chief of Staff John) Kelly had brought Porter into his inner circle, and given him expansive authority to run the policy processes across the federal government.’
Among the devastating claims from Willoughby was that several times during her marriage to Porter she collapsed on the ground begging him to leave her alone because the ‘anger and the insults were too much.’
She had a miscarriage when she was six weeks pregnant towards the end of their marriage, at a time when she was under intense stress.
On June 19, 2010, she filed a protective order against Porter because he violated their separation agreement and would not leave their apartment.
According to a complaint filed with the police, he punched the glass on the door to their home, cutting his hand in the process, at which point she called the police. He then left and following that she filed a temporary protective order.
The former couple split up for good in 2013.
DailyMail.com also revealed that Porter was dating White House director of communications Hope Hicks at the time the abuse allegations against Porter came to light.
Kelly claimed that he found out about the abuse at the same time as the rest of the world and immediately demanded Porter’s resignation.
However Kushner writes, ‘It was a perplexing thing to say, and it left the staff dumbfounded. Kelly had issued a strong statement in defense of Porter on Tuesday, so he absolutely had known about the allegations prior to Wednesday.’
In Kushner’s eyes this meant Kelly was stating a ‘blatant lie,’ fears confirmed by the fact that it later emerged he had known about the allegations for several months.
As the press relentlessly questioned the White House about who knew what and when, he claims that Kelly revoked Kushner’s Top Secret security clearance as a way to distract the media’s attention from his own failings.
‘When Kelly finally called me into his office on February 19 and announced that he was yanking my clearance, I protested. ”General, I’ve done nothing wrong,”’ Kushner writes.
DailyMail.com also revealed that Porter was dating White House director of communications Hope Hicks at the time the abuse allegations against Porter came to light
Kelly claimed that he found out about the abuse at the same time as the rest of the world and immediately demanded Porter’s resignation. However Kushner writes, ‘It was a perplexing thing to say, and it left the staff dumbfounded. Kelly had issued a strong statement in defense of Porter on Tuesday, so he absolutely had known about the allegations prior to Wednesday’
As the press relentlessly questioned the White House about who knew what and when regarding Porter, he claims that Kelly revoked Kushner’s Top Secret security clearance as a way to distract the media’s attention from his own failings
Porter had been described as one of the most important players in the Oval Office
Addressing the incident where Kelly allegedly shoved Ivanka, Kushner writes that Kelly had a ‘Jekyll-and-Hyde’ personality and was ‘consistently duplicitous.’
According to Kushner, only once did Kelly let his mask fully slip.’
He writes: ‘One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office.
‘Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him. Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ”Hello, chief.” Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt, and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage Kelly had shown his true character.’
An hour later Kelly visited Ivanka’s West Wing office and offered a ‘meek apology, which she accepted.’
In an email to the Washington Post, Kelly said that he didn’t recall ‘anything like you describe.’
He said: ‘It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman. Inconceivable. Never happen.’
However, Trump himself backed up Kushner’s account and said that was how the incident played out, according to the Washington Post.
Kushner was part of Donald Trump’s inner circle – and his book promises to reveal to take a look inside the Trump White House
In extracts of the book already made public, Kushner revealed he was treated for thyroid cancer while serving in the White House.
Kushner writes that he recalled a conversation he had with White House physician Sean Conley on an October 2019 trip to Texas.
‘On the morning that I traveled to Texas to attend the opening of a Louis Vuitton factory, White House physician Sean Conley pulled me into the medical cabin on Air Force One,’ Kushner wrote. ”Your test results came back from Walter Reed,” he said. ”It looks like you have cancer. We need to schedule a surgery right away.”’
Kushner told Conley to hold off – and come to his office the next day.
‘Please don’t tell anyone – especially my wife or my father-in-law,’ he said.
Kushner said his cancer had been caught ‘early’ but that a ‘substantial part of my thyroid’ needed to be removed.
He feared that the surgery could impact his ability to speak but he made a full recovering.
Breaking History hits stands August 23.