Ivanka Trump Says There’s ‘No Equivalency’ Between Her Private Email Server And Hillary Clinton’s
Speaking on Tuesday about her use of a private email server to conduct official government business, Ivanka Trump, daughter and adviser to President Donald Trump, said her practice of doing so in no way resembled similar actions that her father was critical of in the run-up to his election in 2016.
During that campaign between Trump and his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, Trump frequently touted Clinton’s usage of a private email server during her time as secretary of state as a disqualifying feature of her candidacy. Crowds regularly shouted “lock her up” at his rallies, which he regularly encouraged.
Yet earlier this month, the president defended his daughter’s similar usage of private emails for public business, stating that it was dissimilar enough that it wasn’t worth looking into. He also suggested his daughter didn’t know better at the time.
“This was just early on when she came in. And it’s all fake news,” he told reporters before Thanksgiving, per reporting from the New York Times.
In an interview she gave on Tuesday, Ivanka Trump elaborated on the point and said that all of her private emails have been accounted for.
“All of my emails are stored and preserved. There were no deletions,” she said, according to a report from ABC News. “There is no attempt to hide. There’s no equivalency to what my father’s spoken about.”
Ivanka defends her emails, says there’s "no equivalency" with Clinton scandal https://t.co/4xnU5mvxbQ pic.twitter.com/tC93yOuWUg
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) November 28, 2018
Trump and her father have also said her emails did not contain any classified information.
Yet Democrats on Capitol Hill, who will soon assume control of the House of Representatives, plan to ask more about her use of a private email system. They say that more needs to be known about Trump’s emails to confirm her statements about them not containing classified government business.
Democrats do not intend, however, on treating Trump the same way Republicans tried to investigate Clinton when her email controversy was brought about. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), who will likely lead the committee that would investigate such a matter, explained.
“My goal is to prevent this from happening again — not to turn this into a spectacle the way Republicans went after Hillary Clinton. My main priority as chairman will be to focus on the issues that impact Americans in their everyday lives.”
President Trump has frequently brought about the controversy surrounding Clinton’s emails. During the campaign in 2016, he even encouraged Russian hackers to dig up information about them.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing,” Trump said at the time.
Per reporting from the Guardian, hackers from Russia tried that same day to hack into Clinton’s email server.
