Ivanka Trump Attorney Highlights Big Differences Between Her and Hillary Over the New Email Accusations

WASHINGTON – First daughter Ivanka Trump, who also serves as a top White House adviser, has been accused of sending hundreds of emails about government business from a personal email account last year.

She's coming under attack in the mainstream media as The Washington Post reports the emails, which were addressed to White House aides, Cabinet members and Ivanka Trump's assistants, were in violation of public records rules.

The White House did not immediately comment, but Trump's ethics attorney, Abbe Lowell, acknowledged that the first daughter sometimes used her private account while she was transitioning into government.

"Like most people, before entering into government service, Ms. Trump used a private email," Lowell's spokesperson, Peter Mirijanian, said in a statement. "When she entered the government, she was given a government email account for official use."

"While transitioning into government, until the White House provided her the same guidance they had to others who started before she did, Ms. Trump sometimes used her private account – almost always for logistics and scheduling concerning her family," he noted.

Trump foes were quick to point out the news was reminiscent of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who came under fire when it was revealed she relied solely on a private email server after she had already been in government service for years.

"There's the obvious hypocrisy that her father ran on the misuse of personal email as a central tenet of his campaign," the Post quoted Austin Evers, executive director of the liberal watchdog group American Oversight.

But Mirijanian begged to differ, noting the two cases were significantly different.

For instance, while Clinton initially claimed none of her emails were "marked classified," it was later determined by the FBI that 110 messages contained sensitive information at the time of their transmission.

"To address misinformation being peddled about Ms. Trump's personal email, she did not create a private server in her house or office. There was never classified information transmitted," Mirijanian wrote in a statement to Fox News.

"The account was never transferred or housed at Trump Organization," he continued. "No emails were ever deleted, and the emails have been retained in the official account in conformity with records preservation laws and rules."

Other Trump aides who used personal accounts at some point during their time with the administration include Jared Kushner, former Chief White House Strategist Steve Bannon, former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, former Chief White House Economic Advisor Gary Cohn and Senior Policy Adviser Stephen Miller, reports the New York Times.

Former FBI Director James Comey and FBI agent Peter Strzok also used private email accounts to conduct government business.

Meanwhile, the House Oversight Committee has announced plans to launch an investigation into the matter. According to the committee's incoming chairman, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), a bipartisan probe launched last year stalled after the White House failed to provide the requested information, the Post reported. 

“We need those documents to ensure that Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and other officials are complying with federal records laws and there is a complete record of the activities of this administration,” the Maryland Democrat said.

“My goal is to prevent this from happening again — not to turn this into a spectacle the way Republicans went after Hillary Clinton,” he added.