Trump team guilty of using private emails
AT LEAST six senior White House officials used private email accounts to communicate about government matters, prompting accusations of hypocrisy from Democrats.
During the presidential election campaign last year Donald Trump repeatedly condemned Hillary Clinton, his Democrat rival, over her use of a private email server when she was Secretary of State, and supporters at his rallies chanted “lock her up”.
Officials in Mr Trump’s White House who used private email included Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff, Steve Bannon, the former chief strategist, Gary Cohn, the chief economic adviser, and Stephen Miller, senior policy adviser.
It had previously been confirmed that Jared Kushner, Mr Trump’s son-inlaw and senior adviser, sent or received about 100 emails on a private account.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, who is a also a senior adviser, also briefly used a private email.
Mrs Clinton, who was the subject of an FBI inquiry after she sent thousands of emails using a private server, accused the Trump administration of the “height of hypocrisy”.
Use of private email by Mr Trump’s officials was uncovered through a Freedom of Information request by the American Oversight pressure group. Austin Evers, its executive director, said: “Yet again we see that there’s one rule for the Trump family and another for everyone else.
“It’s simply breathtaking that both Ivanka and Jared Kushner would conduct government work on a personal email account after running a campaign centred on that very issue.”
The White House said the use of private email by all six officials was sporadic and “very limited”.
A leading Republican congressman demanded more details of the use of private email. Trey Gowdy, who chairs the House oversight and government reform committee, said his panel would “use its investigative resources to prevent and deter misuse of private forms of written communication”.