The daughter of US President Donald Trump, and his senior advisor, Ivanka Trump has used a personal e-mail account to send hundreds of mails to her assistants.
According to the Washington Post, many of them are in "violation of federal records rules" people familiar with a White House examination of her correspondence said.
Ethics officials learned of her repeated use of personal e-mail when reviewing e-mails gathered by five Cabinet agencies, to respond to a public records lawsuit last autumn.
That review revealed that throughout much of 2017, she discussed or relayed official White House business using a private e-mail account with a domain that she shares with her husband, Jared Kushner.
The US Presidential Records Act requires all official White House communications and records be preserved.
It comes after Mr Trump repeatedly criticised his then-rival Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign for her use of private e-mail servers.
He attacked his Democratic challenger as untrustworthy and dubbed her 'Crooked Hillary' for using a personal e-mail account as US Secretary of State.
US President Donald Trump and advisor Ivanka Trump at The White House in Washington, DC | Image: Chris Kleponis/DPA/PA Images
Former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN he believes the move is "hypocritical".
"Well, certainly I think it's hypocritical. I think even Ivanka, if she was interviewed about, she'd have to say it was a mistake.
"You can't do that in that position.
"There had to be a reason why she was doing that. The same thing I would say about Secretary Clinton.
"I think it's a serious matter. I'm not making light of it."
Last September, it was revealed that Trump's son-in-law and senior aide Jared Kushner had used private e-mail to "corresponded with other administration officials about White House matters".
A lawyer for Mr Kushner said at the time: "Fewer than 100 e-mails from January through August were either sent to or returned by Mr Kushner to colleagues in the White House from his personal e-mail 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."
