Report: Six Trump Admin. Officials Used Private Email for White House Business

Report: Six Trump Admin. Officials Used Private Email for White House Business

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/09/26/report-six-trump-administration-officials-used-private-email-white-house-business/


At least six current and former advisers to President Trump have reportedly used private email addresses occasionally for White House business, a revelation Trump critics are likely to pounce upon in light of the scandal that brought down Hillary Clinton in 2016 — despite significant differences.
Politico reported Sunday that Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser, had occasionally used a private email address to send or receive work-related emails. The New York Times reported late Monday that Kushner was not the only adviser to use a private address.

Former White House Chief Strategist (now executive chairman of Breitbart News) Steve Bannon, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus. National Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, and adviser Stephen Miller, all have sent “at least a few emails on personal accounts,” according to the Times. Ivanka Trump — Trump’s daughter and Kushner’s wife — also used a private account when she served as an unpaid adviser, according to the Times.

Kushner’s case, in particular, is likely to raise eyebrows as he established his own domain, http://IJKFamily.com in December to host his family’s personal email, according to the Times. The outlet reports that the domain was hosted by GoDaddy on a server in Arizona.

Government officials are to use official email for government business for both security and oversight purposes. This rule was cast into the national headlines in the 2016 presidential campaign after it was revealed that Hillary Clinton had used a private homebrew server to conduct her business when she served as secretary of state.

While questions into “private email use” are likely to draw cries of hypocrisy from Trump opponents, noting that Trump savaged Clinton for her use, the revelations about Trump officials show yawning differences from Clinton’s.

In Kushner’s case, it appears he used private email occasionally, not exclusively; the number of emails are consequently significantly smaller than Clinton’s (dozens compared with tens of thousands). There is no indication he sent or received classified emails, and none of the emails appear to have been deleted. Most instances are claimed to be instances of someone sending him an email like a news hit or a piece of commentary. Also, there is no sign that he used a private server to conduct business.

The Times notes that it is not illegal to use a personal address as long as the emails are forwarded to the government address, something which Kushner claims to have done. However, the issue is likely to prove tricky for the White House, and White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated that the administration has a strict policy on such matters.

“All White House personnel have been instructed to use official email to conduct all government-related work,” Sanders said. “They are further instructed that if they receive work-related communication on personal accounts, they should be forwarded to official email accounts.”

The email usage could eventually find the White House facing the prospect of more committee hearings, amid the already long line of hearings related to the probe into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-SC) and ranking Democrat Elijah Cummings (D-MD) wrote to White House counsel Don McGahn and leaders of two dozen federal agencies Monday requesting information about the use of personal email accounts by members of the Trump administration. The committee was central in the probe into Clinton’s emails.

The Gowdy/Cummings letter asks for the names of any non-career official who has used a personal account for official business and the names of any officials who use “text messages, phone-based message applications, or encryption software.” The letter reportedly says that the requests are in order to see whether the administration is following record retention laws.

Clinton herself seized on the revelations Monday, declaring: “It just goes to the rank hypocrisy that this Trump campaign and now this Trump White House is engaged in.”

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SEE RELATED ARTICLE BELOW

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-27/trump-advisors-using-private-emails/8991726
Donald Trump: Hillary Clinton calls White House advisors' use of private emails the 'height of hypocrisy'

Hillary Clinton has blasted the "hypocrisy" of the Trump administration after reports emerged that up to six of the President's advisors used private emails for White House business.

"It is something that, if they were sincere about, I think you would have Republican members of Congress calling for an investigation. I haven't heard that," Mrs Clinton said.

"It just goes to the rank hypocrisy that this Trump campaign and now this Trump White House is engaged in."

The former Democratic presidential nominee was speaking on a SiriusXM livestream when she was asked about the reports.

"The hypocrisy of this administration, who knew there was no real scandal, who knew there was no real basis for all their hyperventilating. Republican members of Congress who politicised the deaths in Benghazi, which I thought was outrageous," Ms Clinton said.

"And now we're finding, as with the latest revelations that they didn't mean any of it. It's just the height of hypocrisy."
Mrs Clinton was referring to the 2012 attacks where the US's ambassador to Libya Chris Stevens and three other officials, including elite Navy SEALs, were killed in an attack on the consulate.

Was Mrs Clinton correct that the President's advisors' use of private emails for White House business was hypocritical? Here's what our readers had to say.
Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump among those to use private emails
On Monday Mr Kushner admitted he responded to nearly 100 emails from White House officials on a personal account between January and August.

"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," Mr Kushner's lawyer Abbe Lowell said in a statement.

Politico reported the emails included correspondence about media coverage, event planning and other subjects.

The next day, the New York Times reported five other senior advisors of Donald Trump, including Ivanka Trump, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon and former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, had also allegedly used private email accounts to conduct official business.

Trump called Clinton's use of a private email a 'criminal scheme'

Here's how Mr Trump reacted in 2016 when the FBI announced it was re-opening the investigation into Mrs Clinton's use of a private server after discovering new emails:
A couple of days later, the FBI said the new emails did not change their earlier decision to not charge Mrs Clinton.

Despite this, Mr Trump promised to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Mrs Clinton's use of private emails and threatened to jail her during the campaign.

Crowds at his rallies still break into "lock her up" chants.

So what's the difference between the cases?

As secretary of state, Mrs Clinton maintained multiple private servers, including one stored at her home in New York state.

She used the emails for most of her official communication. An FBI investigation of the practice found that some of the tens of thousands of emails handled by the private account included classified material.

A probe led by then-FBI Director James Comey found no evidence of intentional transmission of classified material and cleared Mrs Clinton and some of her aides of potential criminal charges.

Mr Comey called the practice "extremely careless".

In the cases involving Trump advisors, so far there is no evidence so far that any classified material was transmitted through private email accounts in the cases linked to the Trump administration.

The White House says the accounts were used only sporadically.

However Representative Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, joined with his Democratic colleague in calling for the White House to release more details about the senior Trump advisors who allegedly used private email accounts.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/sep/26/ivanka-trump-jared-kushner-staff-private-email-official-white-house-work
'Height of hypocrisy': Clinton calls out Trump team over private email reports
Donald Trump’s daughter and son-in-law among six administration figures who reportedly used private email accounts for White House business

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ALSO SEE

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/24/jared-kushner-private-email-white-house-243071
Kushner used private email to conduct White House business
The senior adviser set up the account after the election. Other West Wing officials have also used private email accounts for official business.

http://www.newsweek.com/ivanka-trump-personal-email-account-white-house-670700
IVANKA TRUMP USED A PERSONAL EMAIL ACCOUNT FOR GOVERNMENT WORK: EXCLUSIVE

http://www.zdnet.com/article/are-jared-kushner-and-ivanka-trump-violating-white-house-email-rules-a-guide-for-journalists/
Are Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump violating White House email rules? A guide for journalists
In an era where #FAKENEWS is tweeted from the highest office in the land, it's more important than ever that reporters and journalists get their facts right. When it comes to White House email, here are the facts.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/25/us/politics/private-email-trump-kushner-bannon.html
At Least 6 White House Advisers Used Private Email Accounts

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/26/now-trumps-team-has-deal-private-email-questions/705021001/
Now Trump's team has to deal with private email questions

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/09/26/house-investigators-demand-details-on-private-emails.html
House investigators demand details on private emails of Trump advisers
WASHINGTON -- A top House Republican has demanded details on the use of private emails by some of President Donald Trump's closest advisers.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-aides-told-not-to-use-personal-phones-but-some-do/
Trump aides told not to use personal phones — but some do
Fresh scrutiny as multiple current and ex administration officials use private email accounts and texts from personal devices for private conversations
http://IJKFamily.com