congress House Dems authorize subpoenas for senior White House aides' official communications

The House Oversight and Reform Committee voted on Thursday to authorize subpoenas for senior White House officials’ communications via private email accounts and messaging applications, a significant escalation in a years-long, bipartisan effort to learn more about potential violations of federal record-keeping laws.

Thursday’s vote by the Democrat-led panel came after the White House refused to turn over the messages voluntarily earlier this month — including senior adviser Jared Kushner’s WhatsApp communications with foreign officials, senior adviser Ivanka Trump’s use of a private email account to conduct official business, and former chief strategist Stephen Bannon’s use of a personal mobile device for White House business.


Democrats have raised concerns that those practices violate the Presidential Records Act.

“It makes clear that White House records belong to the public — not the president,” Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) said. “The committee has already received evidence of multiple senior officials using their personal accounts to conduct official business.”

On a party-line vote, the committee authorized Cummings to subpoena all communications sent or received since President Donald Trump took office that were not forwarded to official email accounts within 20 days, as required by law. Cummings can also subpoena information about whether those messages contained classified information.

The committee began investigating White House officials’ email practices in 2017 when Republicans controlled the House. When Democrats assumed power this year, Cummings accelerated the probe, seeking documents and testimony related to potential violations of the Presidential Records Act.

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee, said the subpoena resolution was “an attempt to create an appearance of some type of controversy,” accusing Democrats of trying to “go fishing” through the personal email accounts of Trump’s family members.

