In 2016 and beyond, President Donald Trump and Republicans have frequently obsessed with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of private emails, even calling for her to be locked up over it. Now Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner has been busted using private email to contact members of his shadow coronavirus task force.
When the pandemic took hold in the United States after weeks of Trump denying that it posed a real threat, he finally created a White House task force led by Vice President Mike Pence. But he also went to Jared, who created his own secret group. And now the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) allege that Kushner and his band are violating federal laws. Turns out they are using private email accounts to talk to each other, which could be a recipe for quid pro quos and corruption considering the history of the administration and the Trump family.
According to a CREW report:
Jared Kushner’s shadow coronavirus task force appears to be violating both the Presidential Records Act (PRA) and Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) by using private email accounts with no assurance their communications are being preserved and by meeting in secret, according to a letter sent today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The failure of the White House to comply with any of the PRA and FACA requirements leaves the public in the dark about the work the shadow task force has done and the influence of private industries on the administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
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The lack of transparency is alarming. Kushner could easily be picking winners and losers during this crisis, identifying ways he and his in-laws can make money on the pandemic at the expense of the American people.
“If there was ever a time we need records and transparency, this is it,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a statement. “As the seriousness of this pandemic continues to grow, the public needs to understand who in the White House is making policy decisions, who from private industry is influencing those decisions, and how decisions to address this pandemic are being made. After this crisis has passed, we will need to be able to look back at how this administration responded to the situation and have the full picture of what was going on behind closed doors in order to understand what we could do better in the future.”
Knowing the full scope of Trump’s failure and corruption during this crisis will be important to federal prosecutors and lawmakers so we can prevent it from ever happening again. It should also be pointed out that lack of transparency is why panic gripped the nation these last few weeks.
“As the American people turn to their elected officials for guidance on how to respond to the crisis at hand, they need to know that their leaders are acting transparently and in accordance with the law,” Bookbinder said. “There is no excuse for hiding information from the public that affects their lives in an extraordinary time.”
Kushner must be forced to release every single piece of private correspondence he’s transmitted or received since the beginning of this crisis. Americans have the right to know who he is talking to and what he is talking about. If he and his shadow task force spent their time focusing on how they can profit from this crisis or push an agenda instead of focusing on saving lives, they should all be in prison.
Featured image via screen capture
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