Katie Porter’s Ex-Husband Accused Lawmaker of Dumping Steaming Mashed Potatoes on Him in Divorce Filing
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California Representative Katie Porter, who is running for Senate and has already faced accusations that she runs a toxic workplace, had previously been accused of being abusive toward her ex-husband and her kids, according to divorce records obtained by the Daily Mail.
Porter’s ex, Matthew Hoffman, said in court filings about a decade ago that the enraged congresswoman once smashed a glass coffee pot on the counter because she didn’t believe their house was clean enough. He accused her of dumping a bowl of steaming mashed potatoes on his head, burning his scalp. And he said she frequently accused him of being a “f***ing idiot” and “f***ing incompetent,” according to the paper.
“She would not let me have a cell phone because she said, ‘you’re too f***ing dumb to operate it,” Hoffman said in court documents. He also accused Porter of throwing “toys, books, and other objects” when she gets angry.
“When she gets angry, she will claw and scratch her arms and then say to me ‘Look what you made me do!’” Hoffman wrote. “She regularly says that I am a bad parent in front of the kids.”
Porter, who was elected to Congress representing Orange County in an upset victory in 2018, announced her Senate candidacy in January. Porter is expected to face off against Democratic representatives Adam Schiff and Barbara Lee to replace the retiring Dianne Feinstein.
Porter, a bankruptcy lawyer and former student of Senator Elizabeth Warren, has become something of a Democratic darling in recent years. She is known for her sharp exchanges with congressional witnesses, using a white board as a political prop, dressing as Batgirl on the day of a vote on then-president Donald Trump’s impeachment, and for reading the self-help book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck while Republicans struggled to elect a House speaker.
A glowing portrait of Porter published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2020 identified her as a Democratic rising star, and a “straight shooter” who “possesses a finely tuned hypocrisy detector.”
But questions about her temperament could be a liability during the Senate race.
In the weeks before she announced her candidacy, some former Porter staffers took to Twitter to accuse her of screaming and belittling employees, and running a toxic office.
Sasha Georgiades, a Navy veteran who worked for Porter for two years as a Wounded Warrior fellow, told National Review in January that the congresswoman seemed to be driven by a desire for “fame” and “power.” She accused Porter of dismissing a sexual-harassment allegation by one of her staffers, telling off-color and offensive jokes about race and sexuality, and lashing out at staffers if they didn’t complete tasks to her liking.
“Nobody should be getting yelled at like that, anywhere,” Georgiades said, adding that other than a small number of Porter’s favorite staffers, “everybody was fair game.”
Porter previously addressed the accusations of domestic violence in her former marriage during her 2018 congressional run, painting herself as a victim to the Huffington Post.
Hoffman, she said, had once ripped dental floss from her hands because she was brushing her teeth too slowly, punched a wall, pushed her into a wall, and called her a “dumb bitch” in front of her three kids, according to the report. She said that Hoffman once shoved their then-one-year-old daughter across the kitchen in her highchair, and threatened to kill himself.
“I don’t have a shady background,” Porter told the 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.”
The Daily Mail report highlights both sides of the dispute between Porter and Hoffman.
The couple filed for divorce in 2013, but decided to continue living together for the sake of their three kids. Porter was the sole breadwinner, according to the report. In one filing, Porter said she and Hoffman had attended anger-management classes together in 2009.
In filings, Hoffman said that Porter came home from work one day in 2012 and was angry that the house wasn’t clean. “This house is a mess! You f***ing slob! You’re incompetent! What the f*** do you do all day!” she said, according to the report. Hoffmann said that Porter slammed a glass coffee pot on the counter, breaking it to shards, which cut him.
He described an occasion in 2006, when he said Porter accused of him failing to read the instructions while making mashed potatoes for dinner. “She then took the ceramic bowl of steaming hot potatoes and dumped it on my head, burning my scalp,” Hoffman said, according to the Daily Mail.
He said Porter once stood over their son, just 2 years old at the time, and screamed at him to “Get out of my face and leave me alone!” Porter was pregnant at the time, and the boy had been talking to Porter about his excitement of having a baby sister, according to Hoffman.
In a filing, Porter called the allegation “absolutely false,” according to the Daily Mail.
In her own filing, Porter accused Hoffman of being physically abusive, of telling her that she was “ruining our children,” and that she was a “dumb bitch,” a “despicable person,” and “f***ing evil,” and that she “should rot in hell.” She also accused him of yelling at their children.
At one point, Porter received a temporary emergency protective order against Hoffman. He filed for his own domestic violence restraining order against her.
Porter’s campaign told the Daily Mail that his allegations against Porter were “false.”
In 2014, the couple reached an agreement that Porter would pay Hoffman spousal and child support, and that they would share custody of their children.
