Paper: 1st lady used own email officially

WASHINGTON — Melania Trump used a personal email account and encrypted messaging apps such as Signal to conduct government business, a former friend and asso- ciate of the first lady told The Washington Post.

Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who served as Melania Trump’s senior adviser and had previously been a friend, told the newspaper in an interview that the two women did not use official White House email accounts when they communicated frequently about official topics.

Wolkoff recently published “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” but the allegation about Melania Trump’s use of personal email accounts is not included in the book.

The use of personal email accounts was part of President Donald Trump’s criticisms of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. He repeatedly accused her of having deleted 33,000 emails from a personal server while she was secretary of state. Clinton said the emails were personal in nature, and an FBI investigation found no evidence that they were deleted deliberately.

As first lady, Melania Trump is not a government employee and is not automatically covered by the same laws that would govern communications by a Cabinet secretary or other administration officials, according to ethics experts.

“It raises some legal questions that need to be looked at about whether any of the emails would trigger a provision of the Presidential Records Act,” which requires that communications be permanently preserved and archived, said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesman for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group.

There have been earlier reports about the first lady’s use of messaging apps. In 2018, The Times reported that she used “email, text, phone calls and Signal to keep in touch with her contacts.”

Last year, the House Oversight Committee began investigating reports that Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, had been using both WhatsApp, a popular encrypted messaging app, and personal email accounts to conduct business, including communications with foreign leaders.

Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, also reportedly used personal email for government communications. A representative for her lawyer told reporters at the time that she had briefly used a personal account before she had been briefed on the rules and that none of the communications had been classified.

White House officials and Wolkoff did not respond to requests for comment.

The Post said that its reporters had reviewed emails and other messages that they described as having been from “private email and messaging accounts used by Melania Trump.” The paper said the topics discussed in those messages included government hiring, inauguration finances, her child-focused Be Best initiative and schedules for the Trumps during state visits.