White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner reportedly did not tell the Senate Intelligence Committee of the existence of his personal email account — after it was reported this week that he had used the account for official White House business.
CNN reported Thursday that the two top members of the committee only learned of the account when Politico reported Sunday that Kushner had occasionally used the account to conduct White House business.
Consequently, committee members wrote to Kushner to demand he check that he had turned over the necessary relevant documents to the committee, which is investigating alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) and Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) wrote to Kushner saying they were “concerned to learn of this additional email account from the news media, rather than from you, in your closed staff interview.
CNN notes that his decision not to mention the account “could become more serious if there emerge any emails or communications related to the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election that Kushner has not turned over, and whether he did so with the express purpose of concealing information from the committee.”
Kushner is one of at least six current or former Trump administration officials who is believed to have used private email on occasion, according to the New York Times. While such behavior is not in itself illegal, such emails are required to be forwarded to official White House accounts — something Kushner’s legal team says it has done.
Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, played down the committee’s request, telling CNN: “It is perfectly normal that the committees would want to make sure that they received all pertinent records. We did review this account at the time and there were no responsive or relevant documents there. The committee was so informed when documents were produced and there is no issue here.”
Kushner found himself in hot water before for omitting from his initial security clearance form at least 100 contacts that he made with foreign government officials.
Adam Shaw is a Breitbart News politics reporter based in New York. Follow Adam on Twitter: @AdamShawNY
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