The following article by Maggie Haberman was posted on the New York Times website March 26, 2018:
WASHINGTON — President Trump has stayed in touch with Rob Porter, the former White House staff secretary who stepped down after allegations that he had abused his two former wives came to light, according to three people familiar with the conversations, and has told some advisers he hopes Mr. Porter returns to work in the West Wing.
The president’s calls with Mr. Porter have increased in the last few weeks, as the number of people he is close to in the White House has dwindled because of the large number of staff departures, the people familiar with the calls said.
In Mr. Trump’s orbit, few people are ever permanently exiled. He often sees aides who are subject to public criticism as extensions of himself, coming under fire because critics want to attack him, and he has described the Porter situation in those terms to some people, those briefed on the discussions said.
The president has told the advisers he has talked with that he knows he probably cannot bring Mr. Porter back. But he has made clear that he misses the staff structure that Mr. Porter had helped build and implement, a White House official said, speaking on background because advisers were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Mr. Porter also served as a de facto deputy chief of staff for policy, playing a key role on issues like tariffs, and Mr. Trump spent as much as two hours a day with him.
It was not immediately clear how many conversations Mr. Porter has had with the president since leaving, but one person familiar with the discussions said they have talked about trade and how to navigate granting exemptions to the tariffs Mr. Trump announced last week.
A White House spokesman declined to comment. Mr. Porter also declined to comment.
Mr. Porter left the White House on Feb. 7, after The Daily Mail published accounts from his two ex-wives claiming emotional and physical abuse during the course of his marriages to them. One story included a photo of one of the ex-wives, Colbie Holderness, with a black eye she said Mr. Porter had given her.
Ms. Holderness, who split with Mr. Porter in 2008, and his second wife, Jennifer Willoughby, have both been vocal about their allegations about their ex-husband. Mr. Porter has denied the allegations, and said the photograph did not tell the full story of either marriage. Mr. Trump has told some advisers that the news media scrutiny of Mr. Porter was so excessive that it left him unable to defend himself.
Mr. Trump has told people that he believes that Mr. Porter’s departure was botched, primarily but not exclusively by his chief of staff, John F. Kelly. White House officials initially said at the time that Mr. Porter had decided on his own to resign, and some said Mr. Kelly had asked Mr. Porter to stay on. But they later offered a different account — that Mr. Kelly had told Mr. Porter to resign soon after learning of the allegations, though there were multiple accounts of how Mr. Kelly had been aware of some of the allegations for months.
Despite his responsibilities, Mr. Porter did not have a five-year security clearance, only an interim one, during his time at the White House. His interim clearance was never revoked after a full F.B.I. investigation, a fact some White House officials noted when he resigned as an indication that his case was more nuanced and complex than news media accounts had suggested.
But his case led to a sweeping change in how the White House handles interim security clearances, with a new process that some White House officials have privately said is being used as a weapon against specific staff members, with partial information being dribbled out to the press in an inflammatory way.
One of those people, some in the White House believe, was Mr. Trump’s personal assistant, John McEntee, who was hustled out of the White House so quickly two weeks ago that he did not have time to collect his jacket. Mr. McEntee had a gambling habit that could have led to financial issues, White House officials have said, but early news accounts painted him as under criminal investigation, reports that were later contradicted.
Mr. Trump has told advisers that Mr. McEntee is a “good kid” who was dealt with unfairly and that he would like to bring him back.
View the post here.