Jared Kushner, a former senior presidential adviser, alleges in an upcoming memoir obtained by The Washington Post, that then chief of staff John F. Kelly once shoved his wife Ivanka after an intense Oval Office meeting. According to The Washington Post, in “Breaking History: A White House Memoir” Kushner writes: “One day he had just marched out of a contentious meeting in the Oval Office. Ivanka was walking down the main hallway in the West Wing when she passed him.”
“Unaware of his heated state of mind, she said, ‘Hello, chief.’ Kelly shoved her out of the way and stormed by. She wasn’t hurt and didn’t make a big deal about the altercation, but in his rage, Kelly had shown his true character,” Kushner writes, the outlet continued.
The Washington Post tweeted: “In a forthcoming memoir, the former presidential son-in-law and adviser portrays John F. Kelly as having a bullying, “Jekyll-and-Hyde” demeanor. Kelly denies the allegations.” The Washington Post reported that Kushner says Kelly later visited Ivanka in her office to offer “a meek apology, which she accepted.” While he also added that Julie Radford, Ivanka’s chief of staff, heard the apology.
But according to The Washington Post, Kelly wrote an email concerning the allegations. The email says: “I don’t recall anything like you describe.” Kelly said, according to the outlet that “It is inconceivable that I would EVER shove a woman. Inconceivable. Never happen,” he continued. “Would never intentionally do something like that. Also, don’t remember ever apologizing to her for something I didn’t do. I’d remember that.”
The Washington Post also reported that Ivanka stated via a spokesperson that Kushner’s account of the incident is accurate. The outlet noted that the memoir also says that both Kushner and Ivanka thought Kelly was “consistently duplicitous.”
Through a spokesperson, Trump said that her husband’s description of the incident is accurate. Radford also said she witnessed Kelly come to Ivanka’s office, and that she heard him offer her an apology.
The Washington Post obtained excerpts of Kushner’s memoir, which is set to be published on Aug. 23. Initially, Kelly joined Trump’s administration as homeland security secretary but became Trump’s chief of staff midway through his first year in office after Trump replaced Reince Priebus, his first chief of staff.
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