Report: At least 6 top White House advisers used private email accounts
At least six of President Trump's top advisers — including former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and ex-chief strategist Stephen Bannon — used private email accounts on occassion to talk about White House matters, several current and former officials told The New York Times on Monday.
On Sunday, a lawyer for Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner confirmed that Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, created a domain in December called IJKFamily.com for their personal email, and "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 account. Officials told the Times that in addition to Priebus, Bannon, Kushner, and Ivanka Trump — who reportedly used private emails to conduct business when she was both an unpaid adviser and later a formal adviser — chief economic adviser Gary Cohn and senior adviser Stephen Miller also sent or received "at least a few emails on personal accounts." It isn't known if any of the emails contained confidential information, or how many emails were sent and received from the private accounts.
For oversight reasons, government officials are supposed to use their work emails to conduct business, and if they do use private email accounts, they must forward any work-related emails to their government accounts for preservation purposes. During the campaign, Trump spent much of his time blasting Hillary Clinton for using a private email account during her tenure as secretary of state, leading his supporters at rallies in cries of "Lock her up!"
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
-
A journey through Trinidad’s wild heartThe Week Recommends Experience the island’s natural wonders, from watching baby turtles hatch to visiting an ancient bat cave
-
Will latest Russian sanctions finally break Putin’s resolve?Today's Big Question New restrictions have been described as a ‘punch to the gut of Moscow’s war economy’
-
Quiz of The Week: 18 – 24 OctoberQuiz Have you been paying attention to The Week’s news?
-
NY attorney general asks public for ICE raid footageSpeed Read Rep. Dan Goldman claims ICE wrongly detained four US citizens in the Canal Street raid and held them for a whole day without charges
-
Trump’s huge ballroom to replace razed East WingSpeed Read The White House’s east wing is being torn down amid ballroom construction
-
Trump expands boat strikes to Pacific, killing 5 moreSpeed Read The US military destroyed two more alleged drug smuggling boats in international waters
-
Trump demands millions from his administrationSpeed Read The president has requested $230 million in compensation from the Justice Department for previous federal investigations
-
Trump nominee in limbo after racist texts leakSpeed Read Paul Ingrassia lost Republican support following the exposure of past racist text messages
-
Trump begins East Wing demolition for ballroomspeed read The president’s new construction will cost $250 million
-
Appeals court clears Trump’s Portland troop deploymentSpeed Read A divided federal appeals court ruled that President Trump can send the National Guard to Portland
-
Millions turn out for anti-Trump ‘No Kings’ ralliesSpeed Read An estimated 7 million people participated, 2 million more than at the first ‘No Kings’ protest in June
