When he had his closed interview with the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jared Kushner—White House senior adviser and husband of Ivanka Trump—did not disclose that he had used a personal email account to conduct official business, officials say.
According to CNN, the chair and vice chair of the committee were not pleased that they had to learn of the existence of the personal email account through news reports. They sent a letter to Kushner via his attorney Abbe Lowell and requested that he double-check that he had turned over all relevant documents to the committee—including anything 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.”
Kushner used the personal email account from January through August of this year. CNN reports that Sens. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.), the chairman and vice chairman of the committee, respectively, learned of the existence of the email account through the media. Their letter specifically references a CNN report from Sunday, in which Kushner’s lawyer confirmed that his client had used his personal email account for correspondence with administration officials.
“Mr. Kushner uses his White House email address to conduct White House business,” Lowell said in a statement. “Fewer than a hundred emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account.”
The best part of this story, however, is the manner in which CNN came to be in possession of all this tea information.
There is a man from the United Kingdom who calls himself the “Email Prankster.” He is known for having tricked several high-profile people in the Trump administration into having very candid conversations with him via email by impersonating other people. His list of victims includes Eric Trump, Russian Ambassador-designee Jon Huntsman Jr., former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci (twice!), cybersecurity expert and Homeland Security adviser Tom Bossert and, most recently, Kushner’s attorney, Lowell.
On Monday, the prankster posed as Kushner and emailed Lowell asking if he should delete some emails that contained “adult content” from his private email account.
Lowell, obviously thinking that the emails were from the real Kushner, advised his “client” not to delete the adult content and not to send it to anyone.
Fast-forward to Thursday, and Lowell is receiving the email from the Senate Intelligence Committee. In his attempt to then forward that email to his client, he accidentally forwarded it to the email address the prankster used earlier in the week and the prankster, in turn, forwarded it to CNN.
I wish I were making this up.
How do you have so many people working with or in close proximity to the highest office in the country getting duped by an email prankster? How are those same people tricked into doing even more stupid stuff as a result?
Tune in tomorrow for the next episode of White House Apprentice.
Read more at CNN.