The National Archives and Records Administration announced it launched an investigation into Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for using a private email account.
In the letter announcing the probe, the administration pointed to a report from the Washington Post that first revealed Wilbur’s use of his personal email for official department business.
The report painted Ross as an incompetent leader who is indifferent to the work of the department. It also suggested that Ross set up a private email account to help skirt investigations being conducted by the House Oversight Committee.
The report included emails that a nonprofit, Democracy Forward, obtained after filing a FOIA request. It found that Ross was included on several emails with a non-government account on threads relating to state business, including emails to the European Commission for Trade and other U.S. ambassadors.
Charisma Troiano, the nonprofit’s press secretary, asked for a federal investigation into Wilbur’s personal email, stating, “Some of these emails indicate that Secretary Ross illegally conducted government business on his private account.”
Ross denied any wrongdoing.
The Records Administration noted in its letter that Ross’s use of a nongovernment email may not have breached legal requirements so long as he forwarded the content to be preserved within 20 days of receiving the emails.
The administration asked that the department alert them if any emails were not preserved, along with a plan to prevent the use of private email accounts in the future.
Several have criticized Ross for using a private email, given that President Trump picked apart former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 for her personal email scandal.
Lock him up https://t.co/wI4vpGmbfW
— Paul Krugman (@paulkrugman) October 24, 2019
Ross is not the only administration official to have been caught using private email. Ivanka Trump, in her role as adviser to the president, also used a personal email account for official business in 2017.
A spokesperson for the Commerce Department told the Washington Examiner, “We look forward to engaging and cooperating with the National Archives and Records Administration on their investigation, which originated from baseless allegations in news reports.”
