Hillary Clinton Has Some Choice Words For Jared Kushner & His Private Server

During the 2016 presidential campaign, a go-to talking point for Republicans was Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server during her tenure as Secretary of State. In fact, attendees at President Trump's copious rallies began regularly chanting "lock her up" in reference to the "scandal." Putting Clinton in prison was a threat Trump himself often invoked, perhaps most regularly on his Twitter account. So for Clinton, the revelation that Jared Kushner used private email to conduct government business as a White House adviser smacked of one word: hypocrisy.

"It just goes to the rank hypocrisy that this Trump campaign and now this Trump White House is engaged in," Clinton said while speaking with Zerlina Maxwell on SiriusXM. She called the Republican reaction to her private email use "hyperventilating," and noted that "if they were sincere about it I think you'd have Republican members of Congress calling for an investigation. I haven't heard that yet."

POLITICO first reported the story of Kushner's private email use on Sept. 24. According to the report, he used the private account to correspond with other members of the Trump administration, including former chief of staff Reince Priebus and former chief strategist Steve Bannon, about White House issues.

However, according to POLITICO, there is "no indication" that Kushner used his private email to send or receive any classified information. Kushner's lawyer Abbe Lowell, released a statement in response to the report:

Mr. Kushner uses his White House email address to conduct White House business. Fewer than 100 emails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr. Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal email account. These usually forwarded news articles or political commentary and most often occurred when someone initiated the exchange by sending an email to his personal rather than his White House address.

Those details will probably be less relevant to Clinton and her supporters than the fact that, like Kushner, at least six members of the administration also used a private email address for White House business.

The issue of private emails has still been very much on Clinton's mind, even before the latest revelations. In her memoir What Happened, Clinton minced no words over her frustration with the media coverage of her email server. Clinton wrote she felt "tempted to make voodoo dolls of certain members of the press and Congress and stick them full of pins." She went on to say, "It was a dumb mistake. But an even dumber 'scandal.'"

The issue of and investigation into Clinton's emails dogged her campaign before it officially began. There were stories in the news and subsequent congressional investigations starting as far back as 2012. And while that might seem like an adequate amount of time to look into and wrap up any questions concerning Clinton's conduct, that was not how things played out.

Just 10 days before the 2016 election, former FBI director James Comey sent a letter to several congressmen explaining that he was "reopening" the investigation into Clinton's private server emails, after uncovering heretofore unseen emails in the bureau's simultaneous investigation into Anthony Weiner. This came roughly three months after Comey had publicly recommended no charges be brought against Clinton.

Clinton has suggested on multiple occasions that Comey's letter played an integral role in her shocking defeat on Election Day. She thinks it particularly hurt her with white women, who reconsidered their vote while under the impression Clinton might be headed for jail.

No doubt there will be many more claims that Trump's administration is is the epitome of hypocritical, especially considering how big of a deal his campaign made Clinton's own private server emails.