The White House declined to comment on Wednesday when asked about Kelly's knowledge of the allegations against Porter. CNN obtained this 2005 photo of Colbie Holderness, who is the first ex-wife of White House staff secretary Rob Porter. Hicks worked with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders and Josh Raffel, another White House spokesman who is close to Porter, to draft the statement, people familiar with it said. Last month he told colleagues that he wasn't planning on leaving the White House to take an outside role. When John Kelly replaced Reince Priebus as White House chief of staff, Porter's role expanded.

Source: CNN February 07, 2018 23:43 UTC