Trey Gowdy Sets His Sights on Ivanka Trump's Emails, Sends Letter to White House
Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, has asked White House Chief of Staff John Kelly to provide him with information on White House adviser Ivanka Trump’s private email use, The Hill reported.
Ivanka Trump, President Donald Trump’s eldest daughter and a West Wing adviser, used her private email account for government business during the early part of the Trump administration.
Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, requested the information due to the fact that email “implicate(s) the Presidential Records Act and other security and recordkeeping requirements,” according to The Hill.
Kelly was given a deadline of Dec. 5 to respond to Gowdy’s request, and he was also asked to keep the oversight committee up to date on the investigation into Trump’s private email use.
The Washington Post first broke the story that the first daughter had used a nongovernment email account for government-related correspondence on Monday. The article drew comparisons between Ivanka Trump and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of private email servers to conduct government business during her four years with the Obama administration.
In a statement, a spokesman for Trump’s attorney said Trump “sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family.”
“To address misinformation being peddled about Ms. Trump’s personal email, she did not create a private server in her house or office, there was never classified information transmitted, the account was never transferred or housed at Trump Organization, no emails were ever deleted, and the emails have been retained in the official account in conformity with records preservation laws and rules,” the statement said.
While the White House has referred questions about the subject to Ivanka Trump’s legal representation, President Donald Trump was willing to speak more freely.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trump said his daughter’s use of private email accounts was very different from that of his one-time competitor.
“She wasn’t doing anything to hide her emails,” Trump said.
“There was no deleting like Hillary Clinton did,” the president continued.
“There was no server in the basement like Hillary Clinton had. You were talking about a whole different … you’re talking all about fake news.”
Since news of Ivanka Trump’s email use broke, many who oppose the president and his administration have been posting to social media with the trending hashtag #lockherup, mimicking a chant Trump supporters voiced at rallies during the 2016 presidential campaign.
Gowdy is retiring from Congress at the end of this term. But House Democrats, who will be taking control of the chamber in January, have vowed to investigate the first daughter, The Hill reported.
A Democratic aide is quoted as saying that House Democrats plan “to continue our investigation of the presidential records act and federal records act, and we want to know if Ivanka complied with the law.”
The Hill reported that when asked about the possibility of an investigation into his daughter, the president responded by saying, “Ivanka can take care of herself.”
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