Reports that Ivanka Trump used her personal email account for government business was "hypocritical and it certainly looks bad," her father's former legislative affairs director Marc Short said Tuesday, but added there are many distinctions between her actions and those of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
"I’m sure the media will have a field day with it today," Short said on CNN's "New Day," after co-host Alisyn Camerota asked about the report in connection with President Donald Trump's campaign call to jail Clinton for her use of a private mail service while in office.
"I do think there are a couple distinctions to make,” Short commented. “One is that Hillary Clinton did delete 30,000 emails, she had IT specialists come put a server in her home, and there was classified information as secretary of state that she put on there.”
On Monday, The Washington Post reported that Trump had sent emails through her account to White House aides, Cabinet members and her assistants. Peter Mirijanian, a spokesman for her attorney, Abbe Lowell, said she "sometimes used her private account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family."
He insisted no classified information was sent, no emails were deleted, and that the messages were retained to conform with records laws.
"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," he said.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.