A new report dredges up old allegations stemming from the marital dispute between Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA) and her ex-husband.
Details from their messy divorce a decade ago, published by the Daily Mail on Wednesday, come as Porter runs for U.S. Senate in 2024.
Porter and her then-husband Matthew Hoffman filed for divorce in March of 2013. Various court filings contained details about rising tensions and accusations of blow-ups between the married couple over the years.
Starting in 2009, Hoffman stayed at home to take care of their three young children while Porter worked. It was during the ensuing four-year period that Porter, who was a law professor before joining Congress, said her marriage became “troubled” and she and her then-husband attended anger management classes together in 2009.
Hoffman alleged Porter would verbally denigrate him, such as calling him a “f***ing idiot,” and refused to let him have a cell phone because, she allegedly said, “you’re too f***ing dumb to operate it.” In one particularly visceral example of a flare up in 2006, Hoffman accused Porter of dumping a bowl of “steaming hot” mashed potatoes on his scalp.
After they filed for divorce, the couple opted to live in the same house to support their children. According to the Daily Mail, this led to Porter and Hoffman filing for restraining orders against each other over allegations of abuse.
In an interview with the Huffington Post in 2018 when she was seeking her first term in the House, Porter opened up about some of these domestic abuse allegations that led to her obtaining a protective order. The allegations included Hoffman pushing throwing things at Porter, pushing her into a wall, calling her a “dumb b****” in front of their children, shoving their then-1-year-old daughter across the kitchen in her high chair, among other claims.
“I don’t have a shady background,” Porter told the news outlet. “I’m the most boring person in America. I’m a mom of three kids, I protected my family, I ended a marriage that was troubled.”
A Porter campaign spokesperson told the Daily Mail that Hoffman made “false allegations” about his ex-wife underlying his own request for a domestic violence restraining order. “This common defensive tactic is designed to intimidate a victim,” the spokesperson added.
The couple reportedly reached an agreement in 2014 that determined Porter would pay Hoffman for spousal and child support, and that Porter would have custody of the children 70% of the time while Hoffman got the rest.
Porter announced in January a campaign to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), a longtime incumbent who says she does not plan to seek re-election. Two other California Democrats in Congress — Reps. Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee — are also running for the seat.
In recent months, Porter has faced accusations claiming she was a rage-filled and abusive boss who made racist comments. Porter’s communications director Jordan Wong released a statement to POLITICO saying that Porter has “never been racist or abusive to staff.”
