House Democrats start investigation Kushner’s use of private email

A high-ranking lawmaker in the US House of Representatives has officially announced the start of an investigation into use of a private email account by US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Maryland Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings wrote a letter to Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s husband, on Monday, calling on him not to scrap any potential evidence.

"Before requesting copies or calling for the public release of all official emails you sent or received on your personal email account, I first request that you preserve all official records and copies of records in your custody or control,” wrote the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "Your actions in response to the preservation request and the information you provide in response to this letter will help determine the next steps in this investigation.”

Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, said in a statement on Sunday that “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 personal email account.”

He further argued that those are “usually forwarded news articles or political commentary,” further undermining the Kushner’s move by arguing that “most often” such issues occur just because “someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House address.”

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On March 8, Cummings and Jason Chaffetz, the former chairman of the committee, sent a bipartisan request to White House Counsel Don McGahn, asking whether any senior White House official was using non-official email accounts to conduct official business.

White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short sent a response on April 1, asserting that, "There are no senior officials covered by the PRA (Presidential Records Act) with multiple accounts."

In his letter to Kushner, Cummings concluded that, "this statement appears to be inaccurate."

"Although it is possible that Mr. Short was referring to senior officials with multiple official governmental email accounts and that he did not know about your personal email account at the time he wrote this letter to the committee," he added.

The letter was sent at a time that an investigation was underway into possible collusion between Trump and Moscow.

In a declassified report released in January, the intelligence community concluded that Russia helped with the New York billionaire’s campaign effort ahead of winning the White House, an allegation dismissed both by Moscow and Trump.

PressTV-Trump lets Clinton off email hook

Donald Trump signals he will not prosecute Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server, backing away from his campaign promises.

Kushner’s account was apparently set up during Trump’s 2016 transition to power despite the New York billionaire’s repeated accusations against his Democratic contender, Hillary Clinton, for using a private email server as the former US secretary of state.

Clinton has come under the Republicans’ fire over using a private email account and server at her home in New York for official emails when she was America's top diplomat between 2009 and 2013.

According to some reports, Ivanka Trump has also used a private email to contact government officials.

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