Top GOP lawmaker says ‘it’s awfully tough’ for Ivanka Trump to comply with government email standards

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said that “it’s awfully tough” for government officials like Ivanka Trump to comply with government communication standards when sending emails.

“When things like this come up, it’s important people understand, they need to make sure they’re doing what they can,” Goodlatte told CNN’s Erin Burnett on “OutFront” late Monday. 

“And it’s awfully tough, as everyone knows, when you’re sending emails about a lot of different things to make sure that you’re doing it according to the rules in the White House or wherever you’re doing it,” the Virginia Republican added.

{mosads}Goodlatte also said that Trump’s reported use of a personal email account while in the White House is “very different” from Hillary Clinton’s use of a private server while secretary of State.

“I do think, of course, it’s very different to send private emails about matters that are not classified information,” Goodlatte said. “There’s a criminal penalty imposed for doing that — when you have classified information that is transmitted improperly, as was the allegation, and I think the facts now support, with regard to Hillary Clinton.”

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Trump, the president’s elder daughter and a White House adviser, used her personal account in 2017 to correspond with administration staffers, her assistants and Cabinet officials. 

A spokesperson for Trump’s lawyer told the Post that she “sometimes used her personal account, almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family” while she was transitioning into a government position.

He also said her emails have since been forwarded to her official government account to comply with the federal records law.

President Trump immediately drew criticism over the report, given his and other Republicans’ repeated attacks in the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election against Clinton, the Democratic nominee, for her use of a private email server to conduct government business.

Trump, however, has since dismissed as reports that his elder daughter may have violated federal law by using a personal email account to conduct government business as “fake news” and rejected parallels to Clinton’s private email setup.

“She wasn’t doing anything to hide her emails,” Trump said of his daughter earlier this month.

“There was no deleting like Hillary Clinton did,” the president continued. “There was no server in the basement like Hillary Clinton had. You were talking about a whole different, you’re talking about fake news.”