White House

Rob Porter, Gary Cohn and Chris Christie are accusing the veteran journalist of creating a misleading portrait of the West Wing.

Three of President Donald Trump’s former top aides and advisers attacked Bob Woodward on Tuesday, accusing the veteran journalist of misquoting them in his new book “Fear” and falsely portraying the Trump White House as chaotic and dangerous.

On the day of the best-selling book’s official release, former White House staff secretary Rob Porter released a statement claiming Woodward presented a “selective and often misleading portrait” of the administration. Former National Economic Council director Gary Cohn and former Trump transition official Chris Christie also slammed the book, which has roiled the West Wing.

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Porter, who departed the administration in February after his ex-wives leveled allegations of domestic abuse against the influential West Wing aide, took particular issue with reports in Woodward’s book that Cohn and other senior White House officials removed documents from the Resolute Desk without Trump’s knowledge.

In one episode from Woodward’s book, Cohn is described as having surreptitiously snatched a draft letter off Trump’s desk that would have terminated a trade deal with South Korea. Trump has disputed this account, saying Cohn “would have been fired so fast” if he had swiped the memo.

“As Staff Secretary, I was responsible for managing the flow of documents to and from the Oval Office and ensuring that anything the President was asked to sign had been properly vetted,” Porter said in a statement. “The suggestion that materials were ‘stolen’ from the President’s desk to prevent his signature misunderstands how the White House document review process works — and has worked for at least the last eight administrations.”

Porter also suggested that his role transmitting various government papers and staffers’ opinions to the president did not constitute a superseding of Trump’s authority — the type outlined last week in a New York Times op-ed by an anonymous senior administration official who claimed “a quiet resistance” was working against Trump from within the executive branch.

told POLITICO that he’s livid at Cohn and Porter, believing they leaked to Woodward, even though Trump has publicly slammed the book as a work of “fiction.”

Porter on Tuesday offered a forceful defense of the president, saying Trump “invites robust discussion and asks probing questions” and reiterating that Trump is ultimately “the one who decides” on his administration’s policy.

“During my time in the White House, I sought to serve the President’s best interests and to help enable his many successes — successes that Mr. Woodward’s book ignores,” Porter said.

Porter’s statement was first reported by Axios, which also received a markedly more subdued statement from Cohn.