Trump defends aide accused of spousal abuse, assails Democrats

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Saturday pushed back on the #MeToo movement, which urges women to speak out about sexual misconduct toward them, saying “lives are being shattered” by “mere allegations.”

Trump tweeted in an apparent response to reactions to his comments Friday about the resignation of a top White House aide, Rob Porter, after his two ex-wives said he abused them.

In his tweet, Trump referred to women’s allegations about men’s unwanted behavior generally and said, “Some are true and some are false.” He added, “Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

Meanwhile, Trump also blamed Democrats for setting him up for criticism for refusing to release a classified Democratic memo written to rebut a Republican document accusing the FBI of conducting surveillance for political purposes.

Trump tweeted that Democrats included sensitive material in the memo so he would have to reject their request to declassify it “whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency.”

Trump tweeted his thoughts amid the controversies over the partisan battles in the House probe of Russian election meddling and the recent resignations of the White House staff secretary and a Council on Environmental Quality speech writer because of sexual misconduct claims.

The White House is scrambling to contain the fallout from the spouse abuse allegations — especially for Chief of Staff John Kelly, who along with other senior officials had known about the accusations against Porter for months, according to some news reports.

SEE PHOTOS13 moments that tell the story of Trump's first year

Trump on Friday praised Porter’s work as staff secretary and wished him well and predicted a successful career after the aide resigned Wednesday because of abuse allegations by his two former wives — including one who produced a photograph of her with a black eye she said he gave her.

The thrice-married Trump has denied sexual misconduct and harassment accusations against himself by more than two dozen women, and downplayed his 2006 comments on “Access Hollywood,” in which he said he would kiss and grab women without their permission.

“Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation. Some are true and some are false. Some are old and some are new. There is no recovery for someone falsely accused — life and career are gone,” Trump tweeted. “Is there no such thing any longer as Due Process?”

On Friday, former Vice President Joe Biden, who as a legislator helped pass the Violence Again Women Act, criticized Trump’s comment about Porter.

Noting Trump wished Porter luck and said he did a good job, Biden said, “That’s like saying, ‘That ax murderer out there, he’s a great painter.’ ” Biden explained that sexual misconduct should not be explained away by the abilities or skills someone has.

Meanwhile, the House Intelligence Committee on Monday sent its Democratic members’ 10-page classified memo to Trump asking him to declassify it so it could be made public.

Democrats wrote the memo as a rebuttal to the Republicans’ four-page memo accusing the FBI and Justice Department of spying on a former Trump campaign aide in its investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Trump quickly approved the declassification and release of the Republican memo, despite strong objections by the FBI and Justice Department that it was inaccurate, misleading and contained classified information.

On Friday evening, the White House sent a letter to the committee saying the president was “unable” to declassify the Democrats’ memo because it first must be revised to address FBI and Justice officials’ objections about its “classified” and “sensitive” information.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted a different take on his decision.

“The Democrats sent a very political and long response memo which they knew, because of sources and methods (and more), would have to be heavily redacted, whereupon they would blame the White House for lack of transparency,” Trump tweeted. “Told them to re-do and send back in proper form!”

Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, tweeted back.

“Mr. President, what you call ‘political’ are actually called facts, and your concern for sources and methods would be more convincing if you hadn’t decided to release the GOP memo (‘100%’) before reading it and over the objections of the FBI,” Schiff posted.