Ivanka Trump Violates Federal Records Rules By Using Private Email For Government Business
Ivanka Trump allegedly violated federal records rules and used a private email account to send hundreds of emails discussing government business last year, according to a report from the Washington Post.
Per the report, Ms. Trump, who is a White House adviser and the eldest daughter of the president, sent “hundreds of emails about White House business and her official schedule to administration aides, Cabinet officials, and her personal assistants,” a report from the Hill said.
The violation was discovered by White House ethics officials while they were reviewing emails gathered last year by five Cabinet agencies. The emails were being gathered by the agencies to respond to public records lawsuits.
Cabinet officials found during their review that Trump discussed business from the White House while using a private email account with a domain that she jointly shared with her husband, Jared Kushner.
Per the Washington Post, some advisers to President Trump were alarmed upon making the discovery because Ivanka’s activities bore similarities to the personal email use of Hillary Clinton, whose 2016 presidential campaign was allegedly affected because of the issue. During the campaign for the 2016 elections, Donald Trump had called his political opponent “untrustworthy and dubbed her ‘Crooked Hillary’ for using a personal email account as secretary of state.”
#BREAKING: Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails about government business on personal account: report https://t.co/dykIW0t9pv pic.twitter.com/kxI7xXE6cX
— The Hill (@thehill) November 19, 2018
According to the Washington Post, some aides were taken aback to hear Ivanka’s response when she was questioned about the matter, as she said that she was “unaware of some details of the records rule.”
Peter Mirijanian, the spokesman for Ivanka Trump’s ethics counsel Abbe Lowell, acknowledged in a statement that Ms. Trump used a private email account before she was briefed about the rules, and stressed that emails sent from her email account “never contained classified information,” per the Washington Post.
“While transitioning into government, after she was given an official account but until the White House provided her the same guidance they had given others who started before she did, Ms. Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family.”
Mirijanian also mentioned in the statement that Ivanka Trump “turned over her emails about government-related business months ago” and that her personal email use was different from that of Hillary Clinton.
“Ms. Trump did not create a private server in her house or office, no classified information was ever included, the account was never transferred at Trump Organization, and no emails were ever deleted,” Mirijanian said.
He added that when concerns related to the matter were raised in the press 14 months ago, Ivanka “reviewed and verified her email use with White House Counsel and explained the issue to congressional leaders.”
