Fox News contributor: ‘Unforgivable’ for Ivanka Trump to use private email after witnessing 2016 campaign

Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen said Monday that it was “unforgivable” for the president’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, to use a private email address to conduct government business after witnessing the 2016 campaign.

Thiessen, a columnist for The Washington Post, appeared on a Fox News panel to discuss the paper’s report that Trump sent emails to government officials from her personal account in 2017.

{mosads}“Was she not around for the 2016 campaign?” Thiessen asked. 

Thiessen said the issue differed from Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she worked as secretary of State under former President Obama. Still, he said Trump had watched her father, then a Republican presidential candidate, and his base attack Clinton about her use of a private email server throughout the 2016 presidential election.

“Was she not there when the Trump rally people were saying ‘lock her up?’ ” Thiessen asked. 

President Trump used the controversy surrounding Clinton’s use of a private email server to attack her during the 2016 presidential race, leading chants of “lock her up” at campaign rallies that have continued to break out in his more recent rallies.

Ivanka Trump reportedly said she was unaware that her use of a private email address would violate records rules. 

“Her excuse was she wasn’t briefed on it, she didn’t understand the rules,” he continued. “Any American could have told you that was paying half attention to the 2016 election that we understand the rules are if you’re in a high government position you don’t use your private emails.”

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Trump attorney and ethics counsel Abbe Lowell, told the Post that Ivanka Trump’s personal email use differed from Clinton’s.

“Ms. Trump did not create a private server in her house or office, no classified information was ever included, the account was never transferred at Trump Organization, and no emails were ever deleted,” Mirijanian said, noting that Ivanka Trump turned over her emails about government-related business months ago.

Ivanka Trump reportedly sent hundreds of emails about White House business and her official schedule to administration aides, Cabinet officials and her personal assistants. 

They were discovered when White House ethics officials reviewed emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies in response to a public records lawsuit.

Ivanka Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, set up a domain called “ijkfamily.com” through a Microsoft system in December 2016 as they prepared to move to Washington, The Post reported.

Jessica Tarlov, another Fox News contributor, said it was surprising that they would “knowingly” make a separate domain.

“This wasn’t like they were using their old Gmail accounts,” she said. “This actually proactively proactively went and created this.”

Tarlov agreed that the incident was different to Clinton’s but said the panel wasn’t there “to litigate Hillary’s email server.”

“This was an avoidable mistake,” she added.

Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are planning to investigate Ivanka Trump’s use of a personal email account to determine whether she violated federal law.