Global Courant 2023-04-14 04:16:17
EXCLUSIVE: The ex-husband of California Democratic Senate nominee Katie Porter said he “doesn’t recant” his domestic violence allegations against the congresswoman, after her campaign said he did.
The allegations against Porter include claims that she threw hot potatoes on her then-husband’s head and shattered a glass causing him to be cut by shards of glass. Porter has been charged separately with running a toxic, emotionally abusive workplace by former staffers.
According to divorce filings received by Fox News Digital, Porter and her ex-husband, Matt Hoffman, both filed restraining orders against each other following an April 2013 altercation at the home they shared while legally separated.
Hoffman claimed that Porter “hit him in the arm, which left him with a big bruise”, threw boiling potatoes on his head, and ridiculed him as “too stupid” to have a cell phone. He said the congressman “waited all day, then called the police” and “made false accusations” against him 11 hours after a confrontation while they were brushing their teeth the day police were called to their residence.
KATIE PORTER DENIES ALLEGATIONS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE INCLUDING CLAIM THAT SHE DUMPED HOT POTATOES ON HUSBAND’S HEAD
According to divorce papers received by Fox News Digital, California Democrat Rep. Katie Porter, pictured, and her ex-husband, Matt Hoffman, not pictured, both had restraining orders against each other after an altercation in April 2013 at the home they shared while legally separated. (Mario Tama / Getty Images / File)
Police arrested Hoffman on battery charges at the residence after the confrontation in April 2013. Porter requested the temporary restraining order the next day.
Documents obtained by Fox News Digital state that Hoffman regretted making the allegations against Porter in a court-ordered custody evaluation, but it does not specify whether his regret was due to a lack of veracity or some other reason.
Porter’s campaign told Fox News Digital that Hoffman had “withdrawn” his statement, but Hoffman said he had “not recanted” his allegations against the congressman.
Hoffman said he didn’t “remember being sorry about the accusations, but again, it’s been a long time”.
“I am not retracting the allegations,” Hoffman added.
Porter’s spokesperson Lindsay Reilly told Fox News Digital that on “the morning of the hearing on Porter’s request for a temporary restraining order after documented violence by her then-husband, her then-husband’s attorney filed a mutual request for protection .”
“This common defense tactic is designed to intimidate a victim. Her then-husband later admitted, as evidenced by the attached document, that ‘he regretted these allegations,'” Reilly said.
“Porter’s then-husband’s claim was not supported by any evidence other than his false and later retracted statement,” she continued.
Porter’s campaign told Fox News Digital that Hoffman had “withdrawn” his statement, but Hoffman said he had “not recanted” his allegations against the congressman. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images/File)
Porter’s story was supported by police records, a doctor’s recommendation after a custody evaluation of the child, her only request for a warrant to move and property to be checked, and ultimately a judge’s decision that gave her the majority physical custody,” Reilly added.
Porter has repeatedly denied the abuse allegations Hoffman made during a controversial separation and divorce trial in 2012 and 2013. But the allegations resurfaced after several former Porter staffers blew the whistle on what they described as the toxic, emotionally abusive management of Porter. style.
Porter and Hoffman separated in March 2013 and continued to live together until their divorce was finalized in December of that year, but the two alleged that they had abused each other while living together during their separation.
Divorce filings obtained by Fox News Digital include 2012 allegations from Hoffman that Porter shattered a glass coffee pot after getting angry about their dirty home, cutting his hands and arms.
Hoffman also claimed that while married, the congressman regularly berated him as a “damned idiot” and “damned incompetent” and threw “steaming hot potatoes” on his head during a confrontation in 2006.
“She wouldn’t give me a cell phone because she said, ‘You’re too stupid to work with it,'” Hoffman said in comments that first appeared in the Daily Mail this week.
In her restraining order, Porter alleged that Hoffman cursed and verbally abused her and “grabbed and squeezed both (her) hands” during the April 2013 confrontation that led to his arrest.
The congressman also alleged that Hoffman used his elbow to push her aside after he ran toward her, causing her to trip and catch herself on a nearby bookshelf.
Porter said she went looking for her daughter during the altercation and that Hoffman yelled at her that she was “ruining” their family with the divorce.
In her restraining order, Porter alleged that Hoffman cursed and verbally abused her and “grabbed and squeezed both (her) hands” during the April 2013 confrontation that led to his arrest. (Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for The Makers Conference/File)
“He wouldn’t let me leave. It seemed like five minutes or more I was trapped in the washroom with him,” Porter said in the divorce papers.
“He told me not to call the police because if I did, our kids would go to foster homes,” Porter said. “More frighteningly, the respondent then said, ‘Do you want me to kill myself? Is that what you’re trying to make happen here?'”
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Hoffman was the primary caretaker of the couple’s three children, while Porter was the family’s breadwinner.
On April 30, 2013, Hoffman filed for a restraining order in Orange County Superior Court, the day before Porter’s temporary injunction was due to expire.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233.
Houston Keene is a political writer for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @HoustonKeene
