According to Melania Trump's former senior adviser Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, the First Lady used private email accounts instead of her White House email to discuss official White House business.
Using private email
Wolkoff told CNN's Alisyn Camerota on "New Day" on September 2 that Melania Trump was never working on policy, and there were no excuses. Camerota added that a very difficult road to go down with as far as what the White House was willing to open her avenue to participate.
The First Lady is not a federal employee and not subject to the same law as those working for the President or vice president restricting the use of a personal email account to conduct official government business, as reported by The New York Times.
However, Melania Trump's use of private email accounts came after President Trump railed against his opponent Hillary Clinton for using a private email server instead of a government email account when she was the secretary of state.
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Hillary Clinton's email controversy was part of President Trump's campaign back in 2016, which started the chant "Lock her up" among his supporters.
Stephanie Grisham, the spokeswoman of the First Lady, stated that in consultation with White House ethics officials, from the start of the Administration, Melania Trump and her staff have taken steps to meet the standard of the Presidential Records Act. The Act is related to the preservation of records that documents official White House activities.
When asked why Melania Trump would use a private email after President Donald Trump's attacks against Clinton, Wolkoff said that it should not surprise anyone because "the Trumps are the Trumps and they do whatever they want to do and they go by their own rules."
Wolkoff also said that she and Melania Trump corresponded on private email accounts because Wolkoff did not have full access to a White House email account for the first month on the job, as reported by The Guardian.
The Washington Post first reported Wolkoff's claims about the First Lady's use of a personal email. Wolkoff told the news media site that Melania Trump used a private Trump Organization email account, a MelaniaTrump.com email account, iMessage, and Signal, an encrypted messaging app.
The Washington Post reported on September 1 that it viewed messages that appeared to be from Trump discussing government hires and contracts, the schedules of the Trumps for the Japanese and Israeli state visits, the First Lady's "Be Best" initiative, the White House Easter egg roll, and the presidential inauguration finances.
Wolkoff's tell-all book
Wolkoff did not mention Melania's private email use in her book "Melania and Me" that will be available for purchase on September 8. In the book, she also talked about the allegedly sour relationship between Melania and first daughter Ivanka Trump.
Grisham also told CNN that Wolkoff's book was not truthful, and she said that Wolkoff overstated her friendship with Melania Trump.
Grisham said that the book is self-aggrandizing and not truthful. She added that Wolkoff twisted the truth and misguided the blame for self-pity.
Wolkoff was a former director of special events for Vogue magazine. She helped organize events around President Trump's inauguration, and she was Melania Trump's first hire.
Wolkoff also worked as an unpaid special government employee, but as investigations into inaugural activities happened, the $26 million Wolkoff's firm was paid, nearly all but $1.6 million of which went to subcontractors, caused a rift with the Trump family.
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