Top Democrat says Kushner uses WhatsApp for official business with foreign leaders

President Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner uses WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders in his official capacity, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said in a letter released Thursday.

Cummings, chair of the House Oversight Committee, sent the letter to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone. He wrote that Kushner's attorney, Abbe Lowell, met with Cummings and then-House Oversight Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in December and told them about his client's use of WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging service that uses the internet to make calls and send text, photos, and videos.

Kushner's wife, Ivanka Trump, is also a senior adviser to the president, and Cummings wrote that she is not preserving all of her official emails, as required by law. Lowell shared that she still receives business emails at her personal email, Cummings' letter said, and doesn't forward messages to her official account unless she responds to it.

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Lowell responded with his own letter to Cummings on Thursday, writing that he "never said [Kushner's] communications through any app was with foreign 'leaders' or 'officials.' I said he has used those communications with 'some people' and I did not specify who they were." He also denied telling Cummings or Gowdy that Ivanka Trump receives business emails to her personal account but does not forward them.