Oversight Dem presses Gowdy on Kushner personal email request

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is again calling on Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) to sign onto a request for documents from White House senior adviser Jared Kushner about the use of private email accounts.

The latest letter follows a previous one from Cummings on Friday, when he accused the White House of stonewalling the records request and asked Gowdy to issue subpoenas should the White House not comply with the requests by Oct. 26.

The letters from Cummings come after multiple reports revealed that Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law, used a private email account to conduct official White House business.

“In light of the statement from the White House that the Committee should obtain this information directly from Mr. Kushner and his attorneys, I am writing today to urge you to reverse your current course of action and join my requests for documents and a briefing,” Cummings writes in the new letter.

{mosads}“If you decline, then I believe Committee Members should have the opportunity to debate and vote on a motion to issue subpoenas to compel Mr. Kushner and Ms. Trump to produce these documents,” he wrote, referring to Ivanka Trump, who is Kushner’s wife and the president’s daughter and adviser. 

“If the Committee is going to conduct a credible investigation into the use of private email by President Trump’s top aides, we cannot allow lawyers representing the White House and the Kushners to play off each other to withhold documents and evade congressional scrutiny,” Cummings argued Monday.

“Instead, we should obtain the documents and information we requested from both parties, and if they continue obstructing our investigation and refusing to cooperate, we should consider compulsory measures,” he added.

In another Friday letter, Cummings urged Gowdy to support a records request to Kushner Companies about reports that it did not adhere to Department of Housing and Urban Development standards in Baltimore.

“It is critical that we understand whether the Kushner Companies are meeting their obligations as landlords of properties that receive federal funding,” Cummings wrote.

“My staff briefed your staff on these issues some time ago, and I now ask that you join me in sending a bipartisan letter to the Kushner Companies requesting the documents and briefing they have been withholding,” he wrote.

Cummings asked the chairman to allow a vote on issuing subpoenas should Gowdy not support the request to Kushner Companies.