After attacking Hillary... "Melania also used personal email for official duties"

President Donald Trump of the United States and his wife Melania Trump [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] Melania Trump, wife of U.S. President Donald Trump, has been accused of using personal email for White House official duties. Considering that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of personal email for official business during the 2016 presidential election was controversial, this has been pointed out as inappropriate conduct.

On the 1st (local time), The Washington Post (WP) reported that Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who was once a close aide to Melania but later had a falling out, revealed this fact in an interview. Wolkoff explained that Melania regularly used the Trump Foundation account, the MelaniaTrump.com account, Apple's messenger iMessage, and the encrypted messaging application Signal while at the White House.

Wolkoff said that Melania contacted her several times a day and stated, "Neither Melania nor I used White House email." WP said it had directly seen documents that appeared to be personal emails and messages sent by Melania after President Trump's inauguration, which included U.S. government personnel recruitment and contract matters, detailed schedules of President Trump and his wife's visits to Israel and Japan, strategic partnership matters related to Melania's child rights campaign 'Be Best,' Easter egg preparation plans, and funding for the presidential inauguration.

During the 2016 presidential election, President Trump targeted Democratic candidate Clinton's use of personal email during her tenure as Secretary of State as a major attack point. At the time, Trump emphasized that the FBI was investigating Clinton's use of a personal server and described the incident as "worse than Watergate."

Richard Painter, who served as an ethics lawyer in the White House during the George W. Bush administration, told WP that although the First Lady is not a government official, "if she is conducting U.S. government business, she should use official White House email." He added, "According to the Presidential Records Act, personal accounts can be used but it is risky," and said, "It's complete hypocrisy, and those people acted as if Hillary Clinton should go to jail for misusing email and got elected."

Besides Melania, other Trump administration officials who used personal email for official duties include Ivanka Trump, President Trump's daughter and senior White House advisor, and her husband Jared Kushner. They used private accounts for official business and are currently under investigation by the U.S. House Oversight Committee.

Earlier, the U.S. State Department concluded in October last year, after a three-year investigation into Hillary Clinton's email scandal, that "there is no persuasive evidence that classified information was systematically and intentionally mishandled."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.