Kushner’s use of personal e-mail is no minor error

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[Commentary] The new revelations of widespread use of personal e-mail for official business by Jared Kushner and five other White House advisers are no minor indiscretion. Rather, they represent the latest episode in a critical systems failure in the Trump presidency — one that strikes at the heart of our democracy.

At issue is the Presidential Records Act, a post-Watergate statute Congress enacted to establish public ownership of presidential (and vice-presidential) records. It obligates the White House and those who work there to preserve all records relating to their official duties. Despite these legal requirements, the first eight months of President Trump’s administration have been marked by stories of deleted presidential tweets, by the use within the White House of messaging applications that destroy the contents of messages as soon as they are read, and now by White House staff using personal e-mail accounts to conduct government business. It is now up to the courts to hold the president accountable to those he governs by affirming his and his staff’s obligations to maintain and preserve records. Our democracy itself is at stake.

[Norman Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, is chairman of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and served as chief White House ethics lawyer for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2011. Anne Weismann is chief FOIA counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington]


Kushner’s use of personal e-mail is no minor error