WASHINGTON — A top Democrat in the House is calling on the FBI to review whether Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, and the president's daughter Ivanka Trump exposed classified information through their use of personal email and the reported transfer of email accounts to computers run by the Trump Organization.
The Democrat, Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, is also renewing his call for the couple to brief lawmakers about their electronic correspondence, saying they failed to comply with a bipartisan request not transfer or destroy any emails related to government work.
Kushner and his wife have both acknowledged using private email accounts, saying that in the case of Ivanka, most of it predated her formally joining the administration, and insisted that both ensured the communications would be preserved on the White House email system. The White House says it is looking into the use of personal accounts for government purposes.
Cummings’ latest requests come in response to a USA Today report this week that the two re-routed their personal email accounts to a server operated by the Trump Organization just as lawmakers began probing the matter, citing internet registration records and cybersecurity researchers. The step came within days of a request by Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and the panel’s chairman, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., to preserve email records.
“If these reports are accurate, they raise serious questions about the security of the private family domain and nongovernmental servers at both GoDaddy and at the Trump Organization, who may have had access to or attempted to gain access to those systems, and whether any classified or sensitive government information was transmitted through or stored on those systems,” Cummings wrote to the FBI.
In his request, Cummings noted that the agency had conducted a similar counterintelligence investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state.
Writing to Ivanka Trump, Cummings questioned why her private email accounts would be rerouted to a Trump Organization server when she has said she took a formal leave from the family business to avoid conflicts of interest.
Cummings also sent preservation letters to and requested formal briefings from GoDaddy, where the Kushners' personal domain was housed, and the Trump Organization.
