Democrats accuse Ivanka, Jared Kushner of violating law with private emails – AOL
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President Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have been using private email accounts and the messaging service WhatsApp to conduct official government business, the chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee said in a Thursday letter to the White House.
The use of private email and apps by two presidential advisers could violate the Presidential Records Act. It also would amount to the same activity that Republicans, led by Trump, campaigned on in 2016 as evidence of Hillary Clinton’s alleged criminality.
In his letter to the White House, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the chair of the committee, requested documents and information relating to the Trump White House’s use of nongovernmental channels.
Ivanka Trump, Cummings wrote, “continues to receive emails relating to official business on her personal email account” and “she does not forward emails received through her personal account unless she responds to the email, even if the subject matter of the email relates to her official duties.”
That, Cummings said, violates the Presidential Records Act.
Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, assured Cummings that his client took screenshots on WhatsApp of all government business conducted on the platform, including the times he has used it to communicate with foreign leaders. When asked whether he had used the app — which is prohibited by the White House — to discuss classified information, Cummings said Lowell replied, “That’s above my pay grade.”
Ivanka Trump, assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump, left, and Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, listen during a joint press conference with Trump and Saad Hariri, Lebanon’s prime minister, not pictured, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Trump said he’s disappointed with Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and that ‘time will tell’ if the nation’s top law enforcement officer remains in his job. Photographer: Zach Gibson/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Ivanka Trump, assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump, left, talks to Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, before a ceremony in the Rose Garden of the White House to pardon the National Thanksgiving Turkey, Drumstick, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2017. This years pardoned turkeys, Wishbone and Drumstick, will join last years turkeys at Virginia Techs Gobblers Rest exhibit, where students and veterinarians care for the turkeys, and the public can visit and learn about the universitys teaching, research, and outreach programs in animal and poultry sciences and veterinary medicine. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, left, and Ivanka Trump, assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump, walk on the South Lawn of the White House to board Marine One before departing to Camp David in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, June 1, 2018. Trump said he will meet Kim Jong Un on June 12 in Singapore, after he sat down with a senior adviser to the North Korean leader in the White House to continue the groundwork for the historic meeting. Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Bloomberg via Getty Images
FILE: Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, right, and Ivanka Trump, assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump, board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Friday, May 19, 2017. New Yorks banking regulator has asked Deutsche Bank AG and a pair of local lenders to provide information about their relationships with Jared Kushner, his family and the Kushner Cos., according to people familiar with the matter. Kushners financial and business ties have been of consistent interest for potential conflicts given his broad portfolio as senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump. Our editors select the best archive images on Kushner and his family. Photographer: T.J. Kirkpatrick/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Jared Kushner, senior White House adviser, and Ivanka Trump, assistant to U.S. President Donald Trump, arrive for a ‘Be Best’ initiative event in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Monday, May 7, 2018. Melania announced a campaign Monday to raise awareness of children’s issues including social media use and opioid abuse, making a rare solo public appearance in the Rose Garden of the White House to formally launch her official work. Photographer: Yuri Gripas/Bloomberg via Getty Images
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: (AFP- OUT) Former Vice President Joe Biden, fourth from left, and his wife Jill Biden, second from left, speak with Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, third from left, and her husband, President Donald Trump’s White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner, third from right, as former Vice President Al Gore, second from right, speak to former President Jimmy Carter, right, and former first lady Rosalynn Carter, bottom center, before a State Funeral for former President George H.W. Bush at the National Cathedral, December 5, 2018 in Washington, DC. President Bush will be buried at his final resting place at the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. A WWII combat veteran, Bush served as a member of Congress from Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, director of the CIA, vice president and 41st president of the United States. (Photo by Andrew Harnik-Pool/Getty Images)
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Cummings noted that the revelations about Kushner and Trump’s communications had come to light in 2017, but that “new information that raises additional security and federal records concerns” has since been obtained.
Previous attempts by the committee to obtain information on the use of private email have been rebuffed by the White House, setting up the latest battle between the Democratic-controlled body and the president.
“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 said in his letter.
“If you continue to withhold these documents from the Committee,” Cummings added, “we will be forced to consider alternative means to obtain compliance,” a not-so-veiled allusion to a possible subpoena.
In the final month of the 2016 presidential race, Donald Trump accused Clinton of “willful and deliberate criminal conduct” in her use of private email while serving as secretary of state.
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