Trump defends Ivanka’s use of personal e-mail
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump acknowledged his daughter used a private e-mail account for government business but rejected parallels between Ms Ivanka Trump and Mrs Hillary Clinton.
He made harsh criticism of 2016 presidential election rival Mrs Clinton a central plank of his campaign - insisting she had broken the law with a similar private e-mail set-up.
But Ms Trump's e-mails did not contain classified information and she did not use an extensive home server, Mr Trump argued, insisting his daughter and senior adviser had done nothing wrong.
"Early on and for a little period of time, Ivanka did some e-mails. They weren't classified like Hillary Clinton. They weren't deleted like Hillary Clinton," he said.
"She wasn't doing anything to hide her e-mails. They are all in presidential records. There were no servers in the basement like Hillary Clinton had. You're talking about a whole different - all fake news."
Mr Trump's defence of his daughter did little to appease lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who announced plans to investigate whether she had violated federal records rules.
Mr Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee who is likely to become chairman when his party takes control of the House in January, hinted he may revive a probe from last year into Trump officials' private e-mail use.
"The White House never gave us the information we requested," said Mr Cummings in a statement.
"We need those documents to ensure Ivanka Trump, (her husband) Jared Kushner and other officials are complying with federal records laws and there is a complete record of the activities of this administration."
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chairman Ron Johnson, a Republican, said he would also examine whether the law had been broken.
"We take this very seriously," Mr Johnson, who had his committee probe Mrs Clinton's e-mail use, told CNN.
The scandal came to light when public affairs watchdog American Oversight released e-mails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests that showed Ms Trump used her personal e-mail account hundreds of times to communicate with federal agencies. - AFP
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