Wilbur Ross is reportedly the 8th Trump official to use private email for government business

Wilbur Ross.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

The State Department's intensifying Hillary Clinton email probe just got even more ironic.

Over the weekend, President Trump's State Department doubled down on its seemingly everlasting investigation into Clinton's use of a private email for government business. And as a Washington Post story published Monday reports, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross just became at least the eighth Trump official to do essentially the same thing.

The Post story paints a brutal picture of Ross: That he's "old enough to get away with a nap during business hours and young enough to ... observe naked people cocooned in plastic wrap at an arts benefit in the Hamptons," and that he's best summed up as a "$600 slipper of a man." And it also reveals Ross "has used private email to conduct government business," according to emails the nonprofit watchdog Democracy Forward obtained via a records request.

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That puts Ross in the same country club with several of his current and former Trump colleagues. Back in the day, ex-White House Strategist Stephen Bannon, former chief of staff Reince Priebus, and two other former Trump officials were all reported to have used private email accounts in the White House. The current senior adviser squad of Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump also used private email accounts at one point or another — and like Ross, they're still on the job. Kathryn Krawczyk

Update 4:50 p.m. ET: A Department of Commerce official said in a statement that the "hysterical, baseless allegations of illegal activity are without merit."

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.