Jared Kushner used WhatsApp to contact foreign leaders, Democrats say

A key House Democrat is renewing demands that the White House turn over documents about the use of private texts or emails by Jared Kushner, saying Kushner’s lawyer acknowledged that the senior aide used the non-secure WhatsApp application to communicate with foreign leaders.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a letter sent today to White House Counsel Pat Cipollone that the administration has failed to produce documents despite requests from the committee since 2017. Cummings also sought a briefing on how the official messages are being preserved.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

To underscore his concern about whether unsecured White House communications have included classified information, Cummings said in the letter that Kushner’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, acknowledged during a meeting with committee leaders in December that Kushner had used the messaging application WhatsApp to communicate with foreign leaders.

Kushner is a senior White House adviser and the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, overseeing the administration’s Middle East policies among other issues. Cummings said he and then-Oversight Chairman Trey Gowdy, a Republican who has since retired from Congress, met with Lowell in December.

According to Cummings, Lowell said that Kushner has been in compliance with the law, and that he takes “screenshots” of communications on his private WhatsApp account and forwards them to his official White House email account or to the National Security Council.

Cummings wrote that when asked whether Kushner ever used WhatsApp to discuss classified information, Lowell replied, “That’s above my pay grade.”

Lowell didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

‘ALTERNATIVE MEANS’

In today’s letter, Cummings said the White House’s refusal to turn over documents is “obstructing the committee’s investigation into allegations of violations of federal records laws” and potential breaches of national security. He demanded that the White House say by March 28 whether it intends to comply voluntarily with the renewed requests.

“If you continue to withhold these documents from the committee, we will be forced to consider alternative means to obtain compliance,” Cummings said.

“In fact, as you know, the White House has not produced a single piece of paper to the committee in the 116th Congress — in this or any other investigation,” Cummings wrote, referring to the current session of Congress, when Democrats took control of the House.

Cummings said Lowell told the committee that Kushner’s wife, Ivanka Trump, continues to receive emails related to official business on her personal email account but doesn’t forward them to an official account unless she replies to it. That would appear to violate the Presidential Records Act, Cummings said.

The chairman also wrote that his committee has obtained new information about other White House officials that raises additional security and federal records concerns about the use of private email and messaging applications.

His letter said others may have been involved in the practice while they worked at the White House, including former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland and former chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Cummings said the committee obtained a document that “appears” to show that McFarland conducted official business on her personal email account. He said the document was related to efforts by McFarland and other White House officials to transfer sensitive U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia “in coordination with Tom Barrack, a personal friend of President Trump and the chairman of President Trump’s inaugural committee.”

The chairman said another document appeared to show that Bannon received documents “pitching the plan from Mr. Barrack through his personal email account,” at a time Bannon was at the White House and working on broader Middle East policy.