Another White House aide is resigning amid accusations of domestic abuse, two days after a White House Staff Secretary Rob Porter left his position, another staff, this time, a speechwriter, David Sorensen, is resigning. The cause of Sorensen’s exit is similar to that of Porter whom ex-wives accused of physically abusing them. “Before we were contacted by the media, we learned last night that there were allegations,” said Raj Shah, principal deputy secretary.
“We immediately confronted the staffer, he denied the allegations and he resigned today.”
Sorensen, a well-known GOP operative in Maine, worked as a senior adviser to Gov. Paul LePage, according to a May 2017 article in The Portland Press Herald.
A spokeswoman for Le Page told the Post in a statement that the governor and his staff were unaware of any accusations against Sorensen, and the governor “has a zero-tolerance policy regarding domestic abuse.”
Sorensen went further than to deny the incidents. He told the Post that Corbett was abusive toward him. The car incident, he said, happened after he tried to flee after an encounter, and Corbett had injured herself in the process. He told the Post that “this incident is an opportunity to highlight the grossly underreported and unacknowledged issue of female-on-male domestic violence.”
According to the White House, his position did not require a security clearance and his background check was ongoing.
The Washington Post, which first reported news of Sorensen’s exit, said a former wife claimed he had been violent and emotionally abusive during their two and a half years of marriage. The paper said he had vehemently denied the allegations, saying he was the victim of domestic violence in the marriage.
