Jared, Ivanka emails may violate fed laws
Couple’s lawyer told committee of private account
The chair of the House Oversight and Reform Committee revealed information Thursday that he said showed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner used private email accounts and a publicly available messaging service for official White House business in a way that possibly violated federal records laws.
A lawyer for Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s daughter, and Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, told the committee late last year that in addition to a private email account, Kushner uses an unofficial encrypted messaging service, Whatsapp, for official White House business, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD., the committee’s chair, revealed. That business includes foreign contacts, the lawyer, Abbe Lowell, told the committee.
Cummings said Lowell also told the committee that Ivanka Trump did not preserve some emails sent to her private account if she did not reply to them.
Democrats have barely been able to contain their frustration at what they see as a dark irony in the findings. Donald Trump made Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state a central line of attack in his 2016 campaign for president. Even after the FBI declined to charge Clinton for her practices and handling of classified information, Republicans in Congress have continued to pick away at the case.
Lowell could not say if Kushner had communicated classified information on the messaging service, Whatsapp, telling lawmakers that was “above my pay grade.” He argued that because Kushner took screenshots of the communications and sent them to his official White House account or the National Security Council, his client was not in violation of federal records laws.
In a letter disclosing the information Thursday, Cummings said the finding added urgency to his investigation of possible violations of the Presidential Records Act by members of the Trump administration. He accused the White House of stonewalling his committee on information it had requested months ago, when Republicans still controlled the House.
“The White House’s failure to provide documents and information is obstructing the committee’s investigation into allegations of violations of federal records laws by White House officials,” Cummings wrote. He said he would “be forced to consider alternative means to obtain compliance” if documents he requested about White House communications and record keeping were not shared with the committee, an indication he could subpoena them.
Steven Groves, a White House lawyer, said the White House would review Cummings’ letter and “provide a reasonable response in due course.”
The Committee first began scrutinizing the use of private communications services at the White House in 2017 amid media reports Kushner had used a private email account for government business and then that Ivanka Trump had done the same.
CNN reported in October Kushner had communicated with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia using Whatsapp. Lowell confirmed details of Kushner’s private messaging usage during a December meeting with Cummings and the committee’s then chair, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C. Asked if Kushner had been cleared to use the messaging app to communicate with foreign leaders, Lowell recommended lawmakers ask the National Security Council and the White House, Cummings said.
Cummings said after speaking to Lowell, he believed Ivanka Trump could also potentially be in violation of the Presidential Records Act because of her use of a private email account. He said Lowell had told the committee Trump forwards work-related emails received on her personal account to an official government account only if she responds to the email.
Cummings wrote Thursday that he had also obtained documents apparently showing that K.T. Mcfarland had used a personal AOL account for official business while she served as deputy national security adviser and that Steve Bannon had done the same while a White House adviser.