Jared Kushner uses private messaging apps and personal email to communicate about official Trump administration matters with foreign leaders – a violation of a laws governing White House records - a congressional committee has been told.
Elijah Cummings, the Democratic congressman who heads the House of Representative’s oversight committee, said the lawyer of the president’s son-in-law. had made the revelation in December. He said the lawyer had not told congress whether the information Mr Kushner shared was classified.
Reuters said the congressman also said the lawyer told his committee that Ivanka Trump, the president’s oldest daughter and Mr Kushner's wife, continued to receive emails related to official business on a personal email account.
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He said he had made the request in a letter to White House lawyer, Pat Cipollone.
In the letter, which Reuters said it had seen, Mr Cummings said the law governing presidential records prohibited senior White House officials, including the president and vice president, from using non-official electronic messaging accounts
Shape Created with Sketch. Convicted criminals among Trump's former staff Show all 5 left Created with Sketch. right Created with Sketch. Shape Created with Sketch. Convicted criminals among Trump's former staff 1/5 Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty 2/5 Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty 3/5 George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty 4/5 Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty 5/5 Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty 1/5 Michael Cohen Former lawyer for Donald Trump was sentenced to three years in prison on counts involving evading income tax, false disclosure of the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels and another hush money charge Getty 2/5 Paul Manafort Former campaign manager for Trump Manafort was found guilty in February 2018 of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose a foreign bank account. The crimes occurred prior to his appointment in Trump's campaign Getty 3/5 George Papadopoulos Former Trump campaign adviser Papadopoulos pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in October 2017. He had lied about making contact with a professor who claimed that the Russians had dirt on Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail Getty 4/5 Michael Flynn Former White House National Security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in December 2017. He had lied about conversations that he had with the Russian ambassador to the US during Trump's Presidential campaign. He was not given prison time due to his "significant assistance" to the Mueller investigation Getty 5/5 Rick Gates Deputy chairman of Trump's presidential campaign Gates pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI in February 2018 AFP/Getty
The use of private emails for official business became a huge controversy during the 2016 presidential election campaign after it emerged Hillary Clinton had used a personal email server installed at her home in upstate New York when she was secretary of state.
An investigation by the FBI, at that time headed by James Comey, concluded that no prosecutor would have brought charges against her.
However, he did say Ms Clinton had been being “extremely careless” in using a private email address located at her home in Chappaqua. Ms Clinton also said she had deleted 30,000 emails, something that was seized on my Mr Trump and his supporters.
Mr Cummings said when the committee was under Republican control in March 2017, it had started investigating whether White House officials were using personal email and messaging accounts to conduct official business.
He said that Mr Trump's White House had so far failed to provide documents and information and was “obstructing” his committee’s efforts to investigate possible violations of White House policy and the presidential records law.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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OtheDreamer on March 21st, 2019 at 18:40 UTC »
It's worth pointing out that Facebook is under criminal investigation for its data dealings recently. Additionally the co-founder of WhatsApp has left Facebook.
It's also worth pointing out that WhatsApp is one of those communication tools that was heavily utilized in 2016 by the Trump campaign, in order to conduct their business with more privacy.
westviadixie on March 21st, 2019 at 18:35 UTC »
jared and ivanka are a national security threat and need to be removed immediately.
dismayedcitizen on March 21st, 2019 at 18:35 UTC »
C'mon, republicans! You know this one! Yell it with me!
Lock him up! Lock him up! Lock him up!