White House probing officials' use of private email accounts
The White House is scrutinizing former and current officials' use of private email accounts for official government business, CBS News' Major Garrett confirmed Friday.
The revelations of the use of private email by several officials gave White House Counsel Don McGahn no choice but to review the matter since it conflicts with White House policy.
Issues related to archiving any government business must also be inspected, Garrett reports. Those involved in providing documents for Special Counsel Robert Mueller have not received requests for documents related to correspondence involving private email accounts.
On Monday, CBS New confirmed that several senior White House officials used private email accounts for government business.
The New York Times first reported the use of private email accounts and pointed to former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former chief strategist Steve Bannon as being among those using the private accounts. It also reported that Chief Economic Adviser Gary D. Cohn and senior adviser Stephen Miller sent or received at least a few emails on personal accounts. Officials say Ivanka Trump also used a private account while she was transitioning into her role as senior adviser.
CBS News also confirmed Monday that Jared Kushner, senior adviser and son-in-law of President Trump, used a private email to conduct White House business.
"The White House instructs staff to fully comply with the Presidential Records Act, and briefed staff on the need to preserve records," an official said Friday.
Mr. Trump, in his campaign, blasted Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server as secretary of state, which led to "lock her up" chants at his rallies. The FBI investigated her use of the server and found that nothing was found to warrant criminal charges against her.
CBS News' Jillian Hughes contributed to this report.
