The Senate Intelligence Committee is not happy with Jared Kushner after learning that he didn’t disclose his use of private email in his role as a senior presidential adviser during a recent closed interview with committee staff members.
According to CNN, committee leaders were angered that they had to rely on journalists to find out the president’s son-in-law was conducting official business through a personal email account.
“The Committee was concerned to learn of the additional email account from the news media, rather than from you, in your closed staff interview,” said a letter sent to Kushner by committee chairman Sens. Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Mark Warner, D-Va.
The letter demanded that Kushner give up “all other email accounts, messaging apps, or similar communication channels you may have used, or that may contain information relevant to our query.”
Should any of these channels show communications pertinent to the Russian investigation, Kushner could be in serious trouble, potentially facing obstruction of justice charges for not initially disclosing the communications.
But even if Kushner didn’t use a private email to collude with the Russians, his use of personal email raises questions about a double standard in which Hillary Clinton’s use of personal email through a private server was a central issue in last year’s presidential race.
Jared's emails got 45 seconds at WH briefings
Hillary's emails got 500+ NYT columns, articles#DifferentRulesForHer
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) September 25, 2017
Politico reported Thursday that the White House is investigating the extent of the use of private email by its staff after the new organization first reported on Kusher’s emailing habits. Both Kushner and his wife Ivanka have their own “private email domain,” according to Politico.
Paul Waldman, senior writer for The American Prospect, wrote in a Washington Post opinion piece earlier this week that it’s unlikely Kusher will face nearly the scrutiny Clinton faced for using a private email account. But, he added, just because Clinton was unfairly scrutinized doesn’t mean Kushner should be, too.
“Kushner’s emails are probably going to get the appropriate level of attention — which is to say, about 1/1000th of the coverage Clinton’s emails got,” he wrote. “The story will be around for a couple of days, it’ll be a little embarrassing for him, and then everyone will move on. Which is exactly what should have happened to the Clinton email story, given everything we know now. It was at worst a misdemeanor, but it was treated by the media like the Crime of the Century.”
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