FBI Director Christopher Wray gave new details Tuesday about the agency’s background investigation into former White House staff secretary Rob Porter who resigned last week after domestic abuse allegations.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) asked Wray if the FBI was “aware of allegations related to Rob Porter and domestic abuse and if so was the White House informed this could affect his security clearance?”
The FBI Director told Wyden that the FBI “submitted a partial report on the investigation in question in March and then a completed background investigation in late July.”
“Soon thereafter we received request for follow-up inquiry and we did the follow-up and provided that information in November,” he explained, “and then we administratively closed the file in January and then earlier this month we received some additional information and we passed that on as well.”
When pressed for details, Wray told Wyden “there’s a limit to what I can say about the content of any particular background investigation for a variety of reasons that I’m sure you can appreciate.”
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He also said that he is “quite confident that in this particular instance the FBI followed the established protocols.”
Porter resigned Wednesday after the Dailymail featured allegations and photos from Porter's two ex-wives detailing domestic abuse.
It is unclear how Wray's statements to the Senate Intelligence Committee line up with Deputy White House Press Secretary Raj Shah's claim last week that Porter's "background investigation was ongoing, his clearance was never denied, and he resigned."
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