Chief of Staff John Kelly contradicts White House timeline yet again

The mystery surrounding a White House aide accused of abusing two women intensified Friday when Chief of Staff John Kelly volunteered new information about the debacle, again contradicting the White House's timeline of events.

“We didn’t cover ourselves in glory in terms of how we handled that on Wednesday morning; it was confusing” Kelly told a small gathering of reporters, according to Politico and other outlets, referring to the aftermath of two of Porter’s ex-wives coming forward with stories of physical and emotional abuse.

Still, Kelly insisted he had “absolutely nothing to even consider resigning over."

However, Kelly’s new timeline contradicts both his original statements and the White House’s version of events.

Kelly told reporters Friday that he had only learned of one of the “red flags” late in the afternoon of Feb. 6.

“There was no story out yet. The story was that a wife had claimed that she had had some level of emotional abuse,” Kelly said.

Kelly said he left a meeting that evening to learn the allegations involved physical abuse.

“I talked to Rob and just, he resigned,” Kelly said. “That was maybe 7:30 on the 6th of February, about two hours after I found out.”

(Kelly had initially told reporters Porter "was out" within 40 minutes of him learning the news.)

And though Kelly said he learned of the alleged emotional and physical abuse on Feb. 6, on Feb. 7, Kelly issued a statement in support of Porter, calling Porter “a man of true integrity and honor.” (Kelly then issued another statement hours later, saying he was “shocked by the allegations” and that there was “no place for domestic violence in our society.”) Kelly also knew or should have known months before that the allegations were preventing Porter from obtaining a full security clearance, which the FBI reported to the White House early on in Trump's presidency.

Kelly's statement that Porter resigned on Feb. 6, “about two hours” after Kelly found out about the first accusations also contradicts the White House, which contends that he resigned on Feb. 7. Both Porter and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders also initially told reporters that, despite his accepted resignation, he would stay on indefinitely "to ensure a smooth transition." The next day, Porter was gone.