FBI Director Christopher Wray gave this sequence of events in Senate testimony: The bureau submitted a partial report on Porter's background check to the White House in March, completed it in late July and followed up in November before closing the file in January. More: White House says background check for Rob Porter was never completed 
 
 More: Questions that need answers after accused wife beater Rob Porter's White House resignation 
 
 In a statement issued through the White House, Porter denied the allegations last week. Wray told lawmakers at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing that the FBI submitted a partial report to the White House in March on Porter, whose position involved access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets, and completed its scrub of the ex-aide’s background in late July. Story Continued Below 
 
 Wray said the FBI completed a follow-up in November after one was requested and "administratively closed the file" in January. Both the FBI and the White House said the agency sent additional information on the background investigation as recently as this month. Wray did not specify the nature of any of the information it received about Porter. The FBI closed the file in January and then earlier this month, Wray said, the bureau received additional information and “we passed that on as well.” 
 
 “I am quite confident that in this instance, the FBI followed established” protocols, Wray said, speaking at the committee’s annual worldwide-threats hearing. But he issued a public statement lauding Porter on Feb 6, the same night the Daily Mail made public the abuse allegations, and according to people familiar with the matter, urged Porter to stay in his job. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on Monday that the clearance process was "handled by our law enforcement and intelligence community" and that it "hadn't been completed" at the time of Porter's departure last week. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said the White House Office of Personnel Security didn't consider the investigation complete until November — and it had not made a final determination on Porter's security clearance. Sanders said that while the “FBI portion was closed, the White House personnel security office, which is the one to make the recommendation for adjudication, was not finished their process; therefore, they did not make a recommendation to the White House.” 
 
 Last week, Sanders’s deputy, Raj Shah, said the background check had not been finished and that the White House saw it as the appropriate forum for the allegations of abuse and Porter’s denials to be investigated. “In the view of personnel security office, the FBI's July report required significant additional investigatory field work before personnel security office could begin to evaluate the information for adjudication.” 
 
 It is the White House personnel security office, Sanders said, that is responsible for making a recommendation on a given individual to the administration. Spokesman Raj Shah told reporters last week that a background investigation into Porter was ongoing until the point that he announced his resignation on Wednesday. The FBI issued a statement in January saying it had "grave concerns" about President Donald Trump's intention to declassify a memo written by House Republicans concerning the agency's investigation of claims surrounding Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts with the Trump campaign. Sanders also said that “the president and chief of staff have had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performance.” 
 
 The Porter incident has also led to renewed scrutiny of how many White House officials who may have access to classified information continue to work in the West Wing without a permanent security clearance. White House officials were aware of at least the broad outlines of the accusations against Porter by two ex-wives before the news became public last week and led to his exit. “The question is who requested it, what did they know and what were they trying to clarify.” 
 
 White House officials familiar with events have said that chief of staff John Kelly was aware weeks before the Daily Mail report of issues with Porter's case. [‘Very turbulent’: Trump and White House consumed with turmoil amid abuse allegations] 
 
 Wray’s comments stand in stark contrast to how the White House has in recent days portrayed the status of the background check and when senior officials knew about the allegations of abuse against Porter. It’s not some privacy issue….That’s the way the process worked. They would let us know.” 
 
 Porter was among multiple West Wing aides who were still working on interim clearances, according to administration officials. At Tuesday’s hearing, Daniel Coats, the director of national intelligence, declined to comment on Porter’s case or those of other White House officials, including Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, who have temporary security clearance but still have access to classified information. Louis Nelson and Ayanna Alexander contributed to this report.
– The Rob Porter saga re-emerged front and center in Washington on Tuesday, as FBI chief Christopher Wray testified before a Senate panel. The upshot is that Wray's account suggests the White House was warned about Porter's background months before it has previously acknowledged, reports USA Today. Porter resigned his White House post last week over allegations that he beat his ex-wives. Details and developments, including an op-ed from Porter's first wife: What the FBI did: Wray says the FBI submitted a partial report on Porter's security clearance to the White House in March and completed its investigation in July. The FBI then got a request for a follow-up, which it provided in November. Wray said the agency considered the Porter file closed in January, reports Politico. The contradictions: One big one is that the White House has maintained that the investigation into Porter was still ongoing, but Wray says it was over. Also, the White House has never mentioned getting even a partial report as early as March, reports the New York Times. White House officials have said they were first contacted by the FBI about Porter in the summer, per the Washington Post.