Ivanka Trump sent hundreds of emails last year to White House aides, Cabinet officials and her assistants using a personal account, many of them in violation of federal records rules, according to people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence.

It's hard to understand why Ivanka Trump, who heard crowds at her father's rallies chant "Lock her up!" over Hillary Clinton's email abuses, would not be punctilious over discussing government business in a personal email account. By forgetting that not only Caesar's wife, but Caesar's daughter must be above suspicion , she handed her father's opposition a giant talking point. The Washington Post , the community newspaper of The Swamp, got the scoop from some of its many sources in the federal bureaucracy:

White House ethics officials learned of Trump's repeated use of personal email when reviewing emails gathered last fall by five Cabinet agencies to respond to a public records lawsuit. That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she often discussed or relayed official White House business using a private email account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.

Cue Democrats chanting, "Lock her up!"



Photo credit: Rich Gerard.

That's good fun, but there are significant differences from Hillary Clinton's criminal behavior, and Ivanka's lawyers pointed them out to Fox News, the sole significant counterpoint to the mainstream media's demonization of everything Trump (even what they asked for):

In a statement to Fox News, Peter Mirijanian, the spokesperson for Trump's ethics lawyer Abbe Lowell, emphasized those distinctions to the Hillary Clinton email scandal that engulfed the 2016 presidential campaign. "To address misinformation being peddled about Ms. Trump's personal email, she did not create a private server in her house or office, there was never classified information transmitted, the account was never transferred or housed at Trump Organization, no emails were ever deleted, and the emails have been retained in the official account in conformity with records preservation laws and rules," Mirijanian said. He added: "When concerns were raised in the press 14 months ago, Ms. Trump reviewed and verified her email use with White House Counsel and explained the issue to congressional leaders." Mirijanian told the Post that Trump had used a personal account prior to being briefed on ethics rules.

The reason Hillary Clinton should have faced criminal prosecution was the violation of national security laws by sending classified data on an unprotected email. The use of personal email accounts for government business that is not secret is prohibited because of the possibility of concealing information from the public. By retaining the emails erroneously sent via private account and making them available for inspection, no harm has resulted.

The left needs to be careful in crowing over this incident, because any detailed discussion will highlight the differences from Hillary Clinton's behavior, especially in deleting 30,000 emails. But of course, the Trump-hating media rarely focus for very long on one topic before moving on to the next fake outrage.

As for why Ivanka Trump was negligent, I have only guesses. Busy, arrogant, and careless are the first three that come to mind. Since there was no harm, and since corrective actions were taken, it is hard to get too excited.