Second White House Staffer Resigns Amid Abuse Allegations

A second White House aide was forced to leave his post on Friday after allegations surfaced of domestic violence, a White House official confirmed to The Daily Beast. The aide, speechwriter David Sorensen, stood accused of being emotionally abusive and violent to his wife. Sorensen denied those allegations to The Washington Post. But his wife laid out for the paper a gruesome history of abuse, including incidents where he ran over her foot with his car and put a cigarette out on her hand. The White House said Sorensen resigned when confronted with them by officials in the administration. “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's departure comes just days after staff secretary Rob Porter left the White House under similar circumstances. Porter stands accused by two ex-wives of being emotionally and physical abusive. Sorensen came to the White House from Maine Governor Paul Lepage's office where he had been, among other things, a health care advisor. A White House official said that his position did not require a security clearance and that his background check "was ongoing."