Ivanka Trump used a personal email account to send hundreds of emails about government activities last year

Last year, Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of e-mails to White House assistants, cabinet officials, and assistants, often using a personal account, often in violation of federal rules on privacy. archives, according to people close to the examination of his correspondence by the White House.

Ethics officials at the White House have learned that Trump has repeatedly used his personal e-mail when he reviewed e-mails gathered last fall by five Cabinet offices in response to a lawsuit against on public folders. This review revealed that for most of the year 2017, she was discussing or relaying the official activities of the White House to the help of a private email account with an area that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.

The discovery alarmed some of President Trump's advisers who feared that his daughter's practices were similar to Hillary Clinton's personal use of email, an issue on which he focused his attention during his campaign. 2016. Trump attacked his Democratic opponent as untrustworthy and nicknamed him "Crooked Hillary" for using a personal email account as a secretary of state.

Some contributors were surprised by the volume of Ivanka Trump's personal emails – and were surprised by his response when asked about the practice. Trump said she was not aware of some details of the rules, according to people familiar with her reaction.

The White House sent requests for comments to Ivanka Trump's lawyer and ethics counselor, Abbe Lowell.

In a statement, Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Lowell, acknowledged that the president's daughter had sometimes used his private email before being informed of the rules, but he did not report any of his messages containing classified information. .

"During the transition to the government, after receiving an official account, but until the White House gave her the same advice as those who had started before her, Ms. Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always to logistics and planning reasons. family, "he said in a statement.

Mirijanian said that Ivanka Trump had sent all her e-mails related to the government several months ago so that they could be kept permanently with other records of the White House.

And he pointed out that his use of email was different from that of Clinton, who had a private email server in the basement of his home in Chappaqua, New York. At one point, a computer scientist erased an archive of thousands of Clinton emails during a Congressional investigation.

"Ms. Trump has not created a private server in her home or office, no classified information has ever been included, the account has never been transferred to Trump Organization, and no mail electronics has never been removed, "said Mirijanian.

Like Trump, Clinton also stated that she was unaware of or misunderstanding the rules. However, Clinton relied solely on a private messaging system as Secretary of State, completely bypassing government servers.

Trump and Clinton both trusted their personal lawyers to review their private emails and determine what messages should be kept as government records.

Originally, Clinton had declared that none of the messages that she had sent or received were "marked as classified". The FBI then determined that 110 emails contained classified information when it was sent or received.

[Inspector general blasts Comey and says others at FBI showed ‘willingness to take official action’ to hurt Trump]

Austin Evers, executive director of the American Oversight liberal watch group, whose registration requests prompted the discovery of the White House, said that the fact that Trump's daughter does not know that government officials should not use of private e-mails for official purposes is undermined.

"There is an obvious hypocrisy that his father used personal email abuse as a central tenet of his campaign," Evers said. "There is no reasonable suggestion that she does not know better. It is clear that all people who join the Trump administration should be alerted to the use of personal e-mails. "

Ivanka Trump and her husband set up personal emails with the domain "ijkfamily.com" via a Microsoft system in December 2016, as they were preparing to move to Washington so that Kushner could join the White House, according to people close to this arrangement.

The couple's emails are pre-filtered by the Trump organization for security issues such as viruses, but are stored by Microsoft, say the interviewees.

Trump used her personal account to discuss government policies and official affairs less than 100 times – often replying to other government officials who contacted her through her private mail, according to people familiar with the exam.

Another category of less substantial emails may also have violated the Archives Act: hundreds of messages related to her official work schedule and details of her trip she sent, as well as personal assistants who 'took care of his children and his house,' they said.

People close to Ivanka Trump said that she had never intended to use her private mail to conceal the work of her government. After telling White House lawyers that she did not know that she was violating the e-mail rules, they discovered that she had not received any updates. and reminders to the White House regarding the prohibited use of private electronic mail, according to people close to the situation.

Using personal e-mails for government business could violate the Presidential Records Act, which requires that all communications and official documents of the White House be kept as a permanent record of each administration. It can also increase the risk of sensitive government information being manipulated or hacked, revealing government secrets and potentially undermining diplomatic relations and covert operations.

The revelations about Clinton's personal email system led to an FBI investigation into whether she had mishandled classified information. The scandal obscured Clinton throughout the White House race in 2016, culminating in the controversial decision of FBI director James B. Comey to hold a press conference a few months before the elections to announce her finding that she was reckless with the secrets of the government, but that there was insufficient evidence that she had intended to circumvent the law.

During the campaign, Donald Trump said that the "democracy candidate" had "corruption on a scale never before seen" and called his email use "larger than Watergate".

Trump's supporters still sing "Let's Lock It Up!" At his rallies, and the president, almost two years into his administration, continues to twitter on Clinton's emails.

"The big story that the FBI has ignored tens of thousands of Crooked Hillary emails, many of which are really bad," he said. tweeted in August, referring to an article in Fox News about allegations that the office did not examine all of his e-mails. "Also gave false information about the elections. I am sure we will soon get to the bottom of all this corruption. At some point, it may be necessary that I involve myself!

Ivanka Trump used her personal e-mail for the first time in early 2017, before joining the White House as an unpaid senior advisor, according to e-mails obtained by American Oversight.

[Ivanka Trump shuts down her namesake clothing brand]

In late February 2017, she used her personal email to contact Linda McMahon, Small Business Administration Manager, and offer to meet to explore "opportunities for collaboration." The following month, she sent an email to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, suggesting that their collaborators meet to discuss ways to collaborate on "Localization / Workforce Development". and the teaching of K-12 in STEM ".

While his messages focused mainly on government work, Trump was not subject to White House rules.

When she joined the White House on March 30, Trump pledged to abide by "all the rules of ethics," in response to complaints that her voluntary role would have allowed her to do so. access all the benefits of the White House, without however imposing any legal responsibilities or constraints.

"Throughout this process, I have worked closely and in good faith with the White House Council and my personal council to address the unprecedented nature of my role," she said in a statement. a statement.

But Trump has continued to occasionally use his personal e-mail as an official, according to people familiar with the exam.

The use of personal e-mails by her husband, Jared Kushner, for government purposes was scrutinized when it was first reported by Politico last fall. The revelation prompted Congressional investigators to ask Mr. Kushner to keep his records, which his lawyer said he had. At the time, government officials had acknowledged before news agencies, including the New York Times and Politico, that Ivanka Trump had sometimes used a private account when she had joined the White House.

[Kushner used private email account for some White House business]

But Trump had used his personal email for official purposes far more often than it was known, according to people close to the administration's magazine, a fact that remains a well-kept secret in the White House.

"She was the worst offender in the White House," said a former senior US government official who requested anonymity to describe the internal dynamics.

After discovering the importance of her e-mail used in September 2017, White House lawyers used Ivbank Trump's lawyer Lowell to review her personal e-mails to determine who was personal and who were official, depending on the population.

The White House council office did not have access to his personal account and could not consult him without encroaching on his private life and violating privileged communications with his lawyers, said people familiar with the review.

After his review, Lowell transferred e-mails that he determined were related to official business to the Ivanka Trump government's account, a decision he considered to be correcting any violation of the Archives Act. they declared.

Lowell's review revealed fewer than 1,000 personal emails in which Trump communicated her official schedule and travel plans to herself and her personal assistants, according to two people familiar with the exam.

Separately, there were fewer than 100 emails in which Trump used his personal account to discuss his official affairs with other government officials.

The scope of his personal use of email had not appeared in response to American Oversight's request for archiving, which requested Trump's correspondence with Cabinet agencies in early 2017. Most of the internal communications of the White House is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.

"I am disappointed – although I am not entirely surprised – that this administration has ignored clear laws that it should have been aware of," said Evers.

In many cases, government officials contacted Ivanka Trump first at her personal email address. This was the case of a note she had received in April 2017 from Treasury Officer Dan Kowalski, who was seeking to arrange a meeting between the President and the Secretary General of the Organization for Cooperation and Cooperation. Economic Development, an international economic group of which the States is a member.

"I'm sorry to have contacted you in your personal email for this, but it's the only mail I have for you," he wrote, according to an email obtained by American Oversight.

"For future reference, my WH email is [redacted]Replied Ivanka Trump. "Thank you for inviting us and for making this introduction."

But at other times, Trump used his private email to launch official business.

In April 2017, she used her personal email to write to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's chief of staff, Eli Miller, suggesting that he contact his chief of staff, Julie Radford. The mail chain, obtained by American Oversight, was copied to the Radford government account.

"It would be nice if you could connect both of you next week to discuss [redacted], "she wrote," We would like your comments and your contribution as a structure. "