Want the best from VICE News in your inbox? Sign up here.
WASHINGTON — President Trump’s son-in-law and top advisor Jared Kushner has been using WhatsApp to conduct official White House communications with foreigners, a top congressional Democrat said Thursday.
Videos by VICE
Now, Democrats are demanding more information about whether Kushner ever used the messaging app to discuss classified information, and whether the laws governing official communications have been strictly observed by Kushner and other senior officials using private messaging systems — including Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump.
The use of third-party apps for official White House business runs crosswise with one of the main themes of Trump’s presidential campaign, which relentlessly attacked Hillary Clinton for relying on a private email server when she was secretary of state.
“The committee has obtained new information that raises additional security and federal records concerns about the use of private email and messaging applications by White House officials,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Democrat from Maryland and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, wrote in a letter posted online Thursday.
Cummings warned that the use of private messaging systems could bump up against the law governing presidential branch communications, which prohibit senior White House officials from carrying out official business on non-government accounts, unless they diligently forward copies to their official inbox.
Kushner, who’s been asked by Trump to come up with a Middle East peace plan, has reportedly been using WhatsApp to talk to the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman. Kushner reportedly kept that dialogue going even after bin Salman was accused by congressional leaders of ordering the grisly murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi last October.
Kushner’s lawyer Abbe Lowell told lawmakers in December that Kushner “continues” to use WhatsApp to chat with foreigners, Cummings wrote. Asked whether Kushner has ever sent any classified information over WhatsApp, Lowell told Cummings: “That’s above my pay grade.”
Lowell called Cummings’ letter “not completely accurate,” and accused Cummings of mischaracterizing their December conversation. Lowell said his knowledge of Kushner’s WhatsApp usage was based on press reports, and that he hadn’t shown up to the meeting prepared to discuss messaging apps, according to a response sent to Cummings Thursday and obtained by VICE News.
Lowell acknowledged he’d told Cummings that Kushner uses the app to communicate with “some people,” and that he’d noted that Kushner has many friends and contacts abroad.
Cummings said Lowell had insisted Kushner has complied with the law about preserving his official communications, by taking “screenshots” of his WhatsApp messages and forwarding them to his White House email account or to the National Security Counsel.
Cummings also wrote that Lowell said Ivanka, Trump’s daughter and Kushner’s wife, continues to receive official emails on her personal email account — and that she doesn’t forward them to her official account unless she responds to the original message.
Cummings wrote that Ivanka’s private email practices “would appear to violate the Presidential Records Act.”
But Lowell disputed that account, saying Ivanka’s lackadaisical forwarding habits took place before September 2017. Lowell insisted he’d told Cummings that, now, Ivanka always forwards official emails to her White House account.
Cummings also wrote that a document obtained by his committee indicates that former Deputy National Security Advisor K.T. McFarland had conducted official business from her AOL.com account.
McFarland used that account to discuss a plan to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia with Tom Barrack, Trump’s billionaire friend and chairman of Trump’s inaugural committee.
Barrack also sent that plan to the private email account of Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House Chief Strategist, Cummings wrote.
Cover: Jared Kushner takes a phone call before a Security Council meeting on the situation in Middle East, Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018 at United Nations headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
