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Jared Kushner used a personal email account to communicate with White House aides in his capacity as a senior adviser to his father-in-law US President Donald Trump, according to reports.
As a candidate, Trump routinely attacked his Democrat rival Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state, telling supporters "she has to go to jail" over the affair. Following an investigation, the FBI recommended that no charges be brought against her, but noted she had been "extremely careless" in her handling of sensitive information.
Citing four officials, Politico said
Kushner used a personal server to send messages to senior White House officials and outside advisers about media coverage, planning events, and other issues. There is no suggestion the emails contained highly sensitive information or were classified, it added, but they could fall foul of the Presidential Records Act, which requires all documents related to the president's personal and political activities to be archived.Kushner's numerous responsibilities within the Trump administration include brokering peace in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, confirmed the report in a statement to the media.
"Fewer than 100 emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account," he said. "These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House address."
In addition to the email controversy, Kushner is facing scrutiny over the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election, which is the subject of multiple ongoing probes including by independent prosecutor Robert Mueller.
In June 2016, Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr, Kushner and then-campaign manager Paul Manafort met with a Russian government attorney who an intermediary claimed had incriminating information about Clinton.
Comment: The Trump administration should have been doubly diligent with its communication systems and personnel accounts. There is no excuse too small to bring on another investigation.
According to
Politico:
Aides who have exchanged emails with Kushner on his private account since President Donald Trump took office in January include former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chief strategist Steve Bannon, National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, and spokesman Josh Raffel, according to emails described to or shown to POLITICO. In some cases, those White House officials have emailed Kushner's account first, said people familiar with the messages. At times, Bannon and Priebus have also used private email accounts to correspond with Kushner and others.
People familiar with the account say it was primarily set up for Kushner's personal communications, but he has used it to communicate with acquaintances outside the White House about matters relating to Trump and the administration, according to people who have received messages, as well as with his White House colleagues.
Private email traffic among White House aides - some of it sent between personal email accounts rather than to or from government addresses - could skirt the requirements of the Presidential Records Act, which requires all documents related to the president's personal and political activities to be archived. Trump himself is not known to use email but occasionally has email messages to his assistant printed and presented to him.
Lowell said Kushner has adhered to government record-keeping requirements by forwarding all the emails to his account, though POLITICO could not verify that.
Comment: The Trump administration should have been doubly diligent with its communication systems and personnel accounts. There is no excuse too small to bring on another investigation.
According to Politico: