FBI Director Christopher Wray is providing new details that call into question the White House timeline leading up to the departure of former staff secretary Rob Porter amid domestic violence claims.

Mr Wray told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the bureau had issued a partial report on Porter, who was serving as President Donald Trump’s staff secretary, last March — and that the FBI completed its background check on Porter in late July last year.

He said the FBI administratively closed its file on Mr Porter, who was operating under a temporary security clearance, in January, a month before he departed amid domestic abuse allegations.

Mr Wray declined to elaborate on what information was passed on to the White House.

The White House has repeatedly said that Mr Porter’s “background investigation was ongoing” when he resigned his position, and that the first the White House learned of the allegations against him by his ex wives Colbie Holderness and Jennifer Willoughby was last Tuesday.

Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said the FBI’s evidence meant “Chief of Staff John Kelly almost certainly knew about credible allegations of domestic abuse against Rob Porter at least 6 months ago - then recently forced others to lie about that timeline. Inexcusable. Kelly must resign.”

It came as Ms Holderness lashed out at the Trump administration in an op-ed for The Washington Post.

Ms Holderness slammed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for dodging questions about US President Donald Trump’s position on Mr Porter while arguing with the assumption that “strong” women can’t be assaulted.

“White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders again declined to say whether the president believes Willoughby and me,” Ms Holderness wrote in the Washington Post.

“While I cannot say I am surprised, I expected a woman to do better.”

Ms Holderness took particular issue with White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway.

During an appearance on CNN, Conway claimed that Mr Porter’s current girlfriend, White House communications director Hope Hicks, is immune to Mr Porter’s abuse because she is “strong with such excellent instincts and loyalty and smarts.”

“Her statement implies that those who have been in abusive relationships are not strong. I beg to differ,” Ms Holderness countered. “Recognising and surviving in an abusive relationship takes strength. The abuse can be terrifying, life-threatening and almost constant.”

She went on to detail the abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of a former White House official and encouraged others who have suffered a similar nightmare.

“Victims are often with their abusers for long periods of time,” she wrote.

“They marry them, become financially intertwined with them, have children with them. There are many reasons people find it difficult to leave. The bottom line is, it takes strength to pull yourself away and start over.”

But, Ms Holderness said she and Conway definitely agree on one thing she said during that interview: “There’s a stigma and a silence surrounding all these issues ... Those who are in a position to do something about it ought to.”