Jared Kushner used a private email account to correspond with White House colleagues, Politico reported Sunday.
The senior adviser primarily used the email for personal matters, but at times discussed official business of the Trump administration. The White House confirmed to CNN that there were "fewer than 100 emails" that related to White House business on his private email.
The news provides ammunition for Democrats after presidential candidate Hillary Clinton suffered politically for her less-than-perfect email practices. The Trump administration was supposed to usher in a new era of impeccable email server management, but it appears even Republicans struggle to follow government protocols.
Using private emails allows administration officials to circumvent the Presidential Records Act, a law that requires all documents related to the White House be preserved.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer of Kushner's, said in a statement that most of the emails contained innocuous news articles or political commentary, Politico reported. Lowell said that the email exchanges were almost always initiated by somebody else who emailed Kushner's personal email rather than his White House address. Lowell said that Kushner was adhering to the government record-keeping requirements by forwarding all emails to his White House account.
According to emails seen by Politico, Kushner used his private email to correspond with White House staffers such as former chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and National Economic Council director Gary Cohn.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, President Donald Trump urged the government to lock Clinton up for her email practices. Now Trump's own administration is similarly failing to observe government protocol.
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