Draining the swamp

George David Banks, who had served since February 2017 as special assistant to the president for international energy and environmental policy, told POLITICO that he was informed by the White House counsel’s office Tuesday that his application for a permanent clearance would not be granted over his past marijuana use.

  Politico

Frankly, I think that's going a bridge too far.

Banks is the third White House official to leave the administration over the last week. White House staff secretary Rob Porter resigned last Wednesday amid allegations of verbally and physically abusing his two ex-wives. Speechwriter David Sorensen, who worked at the Council on Environmental Quality, stepped down on Friday over domestic abuse allegations. Both Porter and Sorensen deny the allegations.

The administration has tried to crack down on the use of interim clearances in recent months.

So when does Jared Kushner resign?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Draining the swamp

A White House speechwriter resigned Friday amid allegations of domestic abuse, the second such departure this week.

David Sorensen stepped down after his ex-wife, Jessica Corbett, told the Washington Post that Sorensen had physically and emotionally abused her during their two-and-a-half year marriage. Corbett said she had informed the FBI of the alleged abuse last fall. Sorensen denied the allegations, the Post reported, and claimed that he was abused by her.

“Before we were contacted by the media, we learned last night that there were allegations,” the White House deputy press secretary, Raj Shah, said in a statement. “We immediately confronted the staffer, he denied the allegations and he resigned today.”

[...]

Sorensen told the Post that he “had never committed violence of any kind against any woman in my entire life”. He also stated that he resigned because he “didn’t want the White House to have to deal with this distraction”.

  The Guardian

How thoughtful.

The guy at the top could be the most problematic distraction.

At least 19 women have accused Trump of sexual harassment or assault, and he was caught on tape boasting that he was able to “grab [women] by the pussy” due to his celebrity. Trump has repeatedly defended men accused of assaulting or abusing women, including Corey Lewandowski, Roger Ailes, Bill O’Reilly and Roy Moore.

Corbett contacted the Post before the allegations against Porter became public this week. She alleged that Sorensen ran over her foot with his car, extinguished a cigarette on her hand, threw her into a wall, and made her fear for her life while they were on a boat off the coast of Maine.

[...]

The Post interviewed two friends and associates of Corbett who said that she had told them about the abuse at the time. She also showed the Post text messages and emails from Sorensen and a photograph of an apparent cigarette burn on her hand.

Sorensen alleged that Corbett punched him multiple times and once grabbed the steering wheel while he was driving on a highway. He also provided the Post with photographs of his own scrapes and bruises.

“This incident is an opportunity to highlight the grossly underreported and unacknowledged issue of female-on-male domestic violence,” he told the Post in a statement.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.