More Wacky Locker Room Hi-Jinx In Trump Administration-Elect
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Andrew Puzder, the St. Louis attorney who rose to become CEO of Carl’s Jr. and now stands as Donald Trump’s pick to be Secretary of Labor, was accused of abuse by his first wife in the 1980s — with police twice summoned to the couple’s home.
The allegations were first aired in the couple’s 1989 divorce. The abuse allegations in the divorce filings then became the subject of a July 26, 1989, Riverfront Times cover story.
Puzder denied the abuse both in a deposition for his divorce and in the RFT’s story, calling his ex-wife Lisa Henning’s allegations “baseless.”
“There was no physical abuse at any point in time,” he told the RFT.
In her divorce filing, Henning alleged that Puzder hit her, threw her to the floor and unplugged the phone after she tried to call the police for her help. Puzder would later acknowledge in a deposition that he “grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back,” but said he did it to stop her from hurting herself.
The divorce filing also detailed two other incidents: One in the late ’70s in which the neighbors called the police after a shouting match turned into a plate-throwing fight, and one in which Lisa Henning alleged that Puzder punched her in 1985 while they were driving in a car. Questioned about the incident in a deposition for the divorce case, Puzder said that he had not punched his wife, but acknowledged driving onto the curb: “I think it had to do with the liquid refreshment we had with our dinner more than anything else.
This question is whether the Trump administration is doing no vetting at all, or they knew and just didn’t give a damn. I wouldn’t say either answer is very reassuring.