Politics - News Analysis

Commerce Sec. Wilbur Ross Becomes EIGHTH Trump Official to Use Private Email for Government Work

The State Department’s recent intensifying of Hillary Clinton email probe just got even more ironic.

Over the weekend, Donald Trump’s State Department doubled down on its seemingly everlasting investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email for government business.

And as a Washington Post story published Monday reports, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross just became at least the eighth Trump official to do essentially the same thing.

The Post story paints a brutal picture of Ross: That he’s “old enough to get away with a nap during business hours and young enough to … observe naked people cocooned in plastic wrap at an arts benefit in the Hamptons,” and that he’s best summed up as a “$600 slipper of a man.”

It also reveals Ross unsurprisingly “has used private email to conduct government business,” according to emails the nonprofit watchdog Democracy Forward obtained via a records request.

That puts Ross in the same country club with several of his current and former Trump colleagues.

Back in the day, ex-White House Strategist Stephen Bannon, former chief of staff Reince Priebus, and two other former Trump officials were all reported to have used private email accounts in the White House.

The current senior adviser squad of Jared Kushner, Stephen Miller, and Ivanka Trump also used private email accounts at one point or another — and like Ross, they’re still on the job.

As far as Ross goes, he’s apparently a terrible Commerce Secretary.

“Commerce is a mess today,” says a former department official.

“It’s a mess,” confirms a current department official.

“He’s a bit of a mess,” says Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel at Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. She’s speaking about Ross’s conflicts of interest, which have included maintaining financial connections — while overseeing U.S. trade — to companies tied to Russia and China. Just this month, Forbes reported that he still owned shares in a shipping fund despite promising to divest last year.

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