Jennie Willoughby, an ex-wife of White House aide Rob Porter, repeated her domestic abuse accusations by the President’s former staff secretary and added that he had asked her to “downplay” the charges when they were in contact several days ago.
“He was asking me to downplay it and he was asking me to emphasize more the relationship that he and I have now, as opposed to what I experienced in our marriage,” Willoughby told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Thursday.
“We were in contact, even a couple of days ago, as he was asking me to release a statement,” she said. “I went back and forth with him for an hour or so about what language I would be comfortable with. And ultimately the language that he asked, I wasn’t comfortable with.
Willoughby, one of two former wives of Porter accusing him of domestic violence, published an account of her marriage to him in a blog post, which she says he pressured her to take down.
“The first time he called me a “f—ing b—-” was on our honeymoon. (I found out years later he had kicked his first wife on theirs.) A month later he physically prevented me from leaving the house,” she wrote.
“Less than two months after that, I filed a protective order with the police because he punched in the glass on our front door while I was locked inside. We bought a house to make up for it. Just after our one year anniversary, he pulled me, naked and dripping, from the shower to yell at me.”
In her interview with Cooper, Willoughby also addressed the relationship between Porter and White House Communications Director Hope Hicks, warning the CNN host that if he hadn’t already been abusive, it was only a matter of time.
“If he hasn’t already been abusive with Hope, he will be,” she said. “Particularly now that he’s under a lot of stress and scrutiny. That’s when the behaviors come out. If he hasn’t already, he will.”
Watch the video above.