Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka used a personal email account for government business, a spokesman has confirmed, reportedly sending hundreds of emails from the account.

The revelation in the Washington Post on Monday prompted immediate accusations of hypocrisy. Trump branded his 2016 election rival “Crooked Hillary” Clinton over her use of a private email server and encouraged supporters in chants of “Lock her up!”

The Post report said Ivanka, a White House senior adviser, used a personal account to send hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, cabinet officials and her assistants – many in violation of federal records rules.

White House ethics officials learned of her practice when reviewing emails gathered last autumn by five cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit, according to the report. They found that Ivanka often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner, during much of last year.

Her excuse is that she was unaware of some details of the records rules, her associates told the Post.

Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for Ivanka’s lawyer and ethics counsel, Abbe Lowell, told the Post: “While transitioning into government, after she was given an official account but until the White House provided her the same guidance they had given others who started before she did, Ms Trump sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family.”

He denied that any of the messages contained classified information.

Clinton’s use of a private server was a major issue in the 2016 presidential campaign. The then FBI director James Comey’s decision to reopen an investigation just a week before the election is still seen by many as critical in her defeat.

Philippe Reines, a Clinton campaign aide, tweeted: “John Kelly [White House chief of staff] must be compelled to explain to Congress why Ivanka & Jared’s security clearances were granted on a permanent basis despite their email practices being known at that time to the White House as running afoul of security requirements.”

Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law professor at Harvard, added: “You can’t make this stuff up. Not after that gang did the ‘Lock Her Up!’ chant against Hillary for two solid years so Ivanka could become First Daughter. Above the law, just like daddy. Disgusting hardly says it.”