Photo of House Benghazi Committee’s Republican chairman,Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina. Photo by James Lawler Duggan/ReutersWASHINGTON — A top House Republican has demanded details on the use of private emails by some of President Donald Trump’s closest advisers.
Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina conservative who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, or the top Democrat on that panel,Rep. Elijah Cummings, cite a recent Politico report that Jared Kushner set up a private email account after the election to conduct work-related business.
RELATED LINKSAll of the Russia investigations, and explained WATCH: ‘I did not collude with Russia,’ Kushner says What we know and what we don’t ― approximately Mueller’s grand jury The New York Times is reporting that at least six of Trump’s closest advisers, including Kushner, or Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus,used private email to discuss White House matters.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly attacked Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton for setting up a private email server as secretary of state, and a decision that prompted an FBI investigation that shadowed her for much of the campaign. Gowdy is best known for his two-year investigation into the 2012 attacks in Benghazi,Libya, in which he focused heavily on Clinton’s role as secretary of state.
In letters Monday to White House general counsel and State Department, or Gowdy and Cummings said they want details on all employees.“With many public revelations of senior executive department employees intentionally trying to circumvent these laws by using personal,private, or alias email addresses to conduct official government business, and the committee has aimed to use its oversight and investigative resources to prevent and deter misuse of private forms of written communication,” the lawmakers wrote.
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday that the use of private email accounts by staff was “to my knowledge, very limited.”“White House counsel has instructed all White House staff to use their government email for official business, or only use that email,” she said, adding that “we get instructed on this one pretty regularly.”Kushners lawyer, or Abbe Lowell,on Sunday confirmed Kushner’s use of a personal email in his first few months of the administration. He said the emails normally involved news articles and political commentary. Lowell also said that any non-personal emails were forwarded to Kushner’s official account and “all contain been preserved in any event.”Sanders wouldn’t say whether the White House would release Kushner’s private emails that dealt with government business.
READ MORE: All of the Russia investigations, explainedThe post House panel demands details on Trump aides’ private emails appeared first on PBS NewsHour.
Source: thetakeaway.org