Ivanka Trump’s use of a Trump Organization personal email account to conduct White House business was ill-advised and against federal records rules. But it is utterly absurd to suggest, as many are doing, that Ivanka Trump’s conduct here is similar to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email system.
First off, there is no evidence that Trump sent any classified emails over her server. The Washington Post, which broke the Trump email story, reports that Trump’s team has strongly denied that she transmitted any classified information over the private system. That stands in stark contrast to then-Secretary of State Clinton’s use of her private system. As my colleague Tiana Lowe notes, Clinton’s claim that she transmitted no classified information was absurdly untrue. Indeed, the FBI investigation into Clinton’s conduct found that of the 110 classified emails that Clinton sent, 8 were classified at the Top Secret level.
Second, the Washington Post reports that less than 100 government-related emails were ever sent by Trump on her private account. Nor is there evidence that Trump deleted any government emails on her server. That stands in stark contrast to Secretary Clinton, who forensically wiped her private server of more than 30,000 emails. These deleted emails, which Clinton’s legal team claims were not work related, were unrecoverable except for a number of Clinton emails that were found on Anthony Weiner’s computer. And those newly found emails were found to include classified material. That’s relevant because it suggests at least some of the other unrecoverable 30,000+ emails that Clinton deleted also included classified material.
That gives the lie to the Clinton legal team’s claim that all of her deleted emails were personal. It’s more evidence of Clinton’s capricious conduct.
Third, the risks of foreign intelligence gain from Trump’s email account are far lower than with Clinton. Where Clinton held a position at the top of the U.S. national security and diplomatic establishment, Trump is in a role that pertains to domestic affairs. Yes, foreign intelligence services would be interested in any Trump emails relating to personal dynamics and policy deliberations in the White House. Still, the prospective measure of their gain here would be inherently limited.
Ivanka Trump’s email would likely have been targeted at least a year before Donald Trump became president: Once they saw the prospect of Donald Trump entering the Oval Office, hostile foreign intelligence services would likely have sought access to the Trump Organization’s servers in a fishing expedition for valuable information. Crucially, however, Ivanka Trump would have been warned early that this effort was likely. In the context of the Clinton email scandal, it thus seems unlikely that Trump would have been so stupid as to send government emails over private servers after January 2017.
Put simply, the respective evidence and indications here are clear. Clinton’s use of a private email system was capricious, damaging to national security, and on a massive scale. Trump’s use of a private email system was simply arrogant and careless. That’s not at all the same thing.
[Read more: Alan Dershowitz: Criticism of Ivanka Trump’s private email use is ‘hypocrisy on parade’]
