In his closed interview with the staff of the Senate intelligence committee, White House senior adviser and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner did not share the existence of his personal email account, which he has used for official business, CNN learned on Thursday.
According to the report, the chair and vice chair of the committee were so unhappy that they learned about the existence of his personal email account via news reports that they wrote him a letter via his attorney Thursday instructing him to double-check that he has turned over every relevant document to the committee, including those from his "'personal email account' described to the news media, as well as all other email accounts, messaging apps, or similar communications channels you may have used, or that may contain information relevant to our inquiry."
Politico reported earlier this week that Kushner used a private email account to send or receive about 100 work-related emails during the administration’s first seven months.
A day later, Newsweek reported that Ivanka Trump, the president’s elder daughter and Kushner’s wife, used a private account when she acted as an unpaid adviser in the first months of the administration.
Another report then claimed that at least six of U.S. President Donald Trump’s closest advisers occasionally used private email addresses to discuss White House matters, including Stephen Bannon, the former chief White House strategist, and Reince Priebus, the former chief of staff.
In reference to the letter from the Senate Intelligence Committee, Kushner's attorney, Abbe Lowell, told CNN on Thursday, "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."
The Senate Intelligence Committee had no official comment.
During the 2016 presidential election, President Trump was a harsh critic of his rival Hillary Clinton’s private email habits.
Clinton was the target of an extensive FBI investigation, overseen by former FBI Director James Comey, into whether she mishandled classified material by sending or receiving it via her non-government email address.
Comey determined that Clinton should not be indicted in the email probe, though he dropped a bombshell when he informed Congress days before the election that the FBI had discovered emails in a separate investigation that could be connected to the Clinton investigation.
The FBI subsequently said it would not change its initial determination in the Clinton email probe, but Clinton still claims that Comey’s actions cost her the presidency.