US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law has been using a private email account along with some other White House officials to conduct official business, his lawyer says.
White House senior advisor Jared Kushner has used the personal account to talk about different issues with figures such as former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, former chief strategist Steve Bannon and his father-in-law’s chief economic adviser Gary Cohn, Politico reported Sunday.
“Mr. Kushner uses his White House email address to conduct White House business,” Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Kushner, said in a statement Sunday. “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. These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House address.”
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.
The report came at a time taht 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.
Reports emerged in June that Trump’s Jewish son-in-law, was present at a meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower in the summer of 2016.
The meeting had been arranged by the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., in an effort to find damaging information about Clinton.
Trump has seemingly assigned Kushner with taking care of Washington’s affairs in the Middle East.
He has also tasked Kushner, who lacks political experience, with brokering a peace deal between Palestine and Israel.