Jared Kushner failed to tell Senate Intelligence Committee investigators about his private email account, panel members charged in an angry letter that only came to light because of a goof by Kushner’s high-powered lawyer.
‘The committee was concerned to learn of this additional email account from the news media, rather than from you, in your closed staff interview,’ committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr and Vice Chair Sen. John Warner scolded Kushner in their joint letter dated Thursday.
Kushner’s attorney accidentally forwarded the letter, marked ‘COMMITTEE SENSITIVE’ to the same person who had pranked him previously under a ruse where he posed as Kushner and sought advice about ‘adult’ emails located on his personal email account.
FOOLED AGAIN: Attorney Abbe Lowell (left) got tricked by a prankster posing as his client, Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, under the ruse of an urgent request for legal advice about emails containing porn. Then, he inadvertently forwarded a sensitive letter from the Senate Intelligence Committee to the prankster who fooled him
Lowell, upon receiving the letter from the committee, attempted to forward it – apparently and inadvertently sending it to the email prankster who tricked him instead of to the real Jared Kushner, his client.
The prankster had originally tricked Lowell into an email exchange using the fake address kushner.jared@mail.com while pretending to need advice about ‘adult’ emails he had uncovered in his in-box.
The address apparently then ended up in Lowell’s auto-fill feature when he attempted to forward the email.
A person familiar with the transmission told CNN, which first reported the story, that it got sent to the prankster by mistake.
IS THERE WIRELESS HERE? The prankster posing as Kushner wanted to know about whether it was okay to delete an email from a White House official with a ‘shared interest’ in porn
The self-described prankster crowed about the feat, and tacked on two emojis for emphasis
The prankster, who goes by @SINON_REBORN on Twitter, bragged about the feat online.
‘JARED KUSHNER’S LAWYER, ABBE, sent this to my FAKE JARED email address today!!!’ the prankster wrote, adding two emojis for emphasis.
The letter from the committee asked that he preserve emails and respond in writing.
‘Please confirm that the document production that you made to the committee – and any and all document searches of email accounts for that document production included the additional ‘personal email account’ described to the news media, as well as all other email accounts, messaging apps, or similar communications channels you may have used, or that may contain information relevant to our inquiry, they wrote.
‘As you are aware, this committee has previously requested that you preserve and produce certain documents related to the Russian inquiry—including, but not limited to, email communications.’
The committee is probing Russian interference in the presidential election and Russian contacts with Trump officials, a group that includes Kushner.
‘Don’t delete. Don’t send to anyone. Let’s chat in a bit,’ Lowell wrote back
The letter was marked ‘COMMITTEE SENSITIVE’ but got forwarded to the prankster and posted online
Earlier this week, it was revealed that the prankster tricked Lowell into thinking he was Kushner – then made increasingly bizarre claims about having porn on email exchanges with White House officials.
The prankster fooled Lowell into discussing confidential business with his client by using the email address kushner.jared@mail.com, and reaching out for help about whether it’s okay to purge emails.
DELETE YOUR ACCOUNT: Top lawyer Abbe Lowell got fooled by the prankster, then forwarded a sensitive document from the Senate Intelligence Committee needling his client
The prankster played off the timing of some real news: the discovery that Kushner and five other White House officials had used private email accounts.
Posing as Kushner, he wrote in an email that he had uncovered material of a ‘sensitive nature’ in his private account.
‘Namely: some exchanges with a website featuring adult content,’ he wrote.
‘Can I remove these?’ the prankster wanted to know.
The prankster initially posted the exchange with Lowell on Twitter including references to made-up ‘adult’ content
‘Forwarded or received from WH officials?’ Lowell wanted to know.
The prankster reeled in Lowell, considered a top defense attorney, by stating that a single message came from a fellow White House employee.
‘I think one was forwarded from a White House official, we had discussed a shared interest of sorts,’ the prankster wrote. ‘It was unsolicited. Then there are a handful more, but not from officials.’
The Lowell proceeded to dispense legal advice, but in the process revealed that he apparently hasn’t read all of Kushner’s emails as of yet.
‘I need to see I think all emails between you and WH (just for me and us),’ he responded. ‘We need to send any officials emails to your WH account. Not stuff like you asked about. None of those are going anywhere,’ he reassured his client.
‘But we can bury it?’ the prankster posing as Kushner wanted to know. ‘I’m so embarrassed. It’s fairly specialist stuff, half naked women on a trampoline, standing on legoscenes, the tag for the movie was #standingOnTheLittlePeople :(‘
‘Don’t delete. Don’t send to anyone. Let’s chat in a bit,’ Lowell wrote back, not flummoxed by the claim and offering what appears to be sound legal advice.
The prankster then made another outlandish claims. ‘There’s one more,’ the person wrote. ‘I’ll be SUNK if it’s found out. The protagonist of the piece looks exactly like a younger Hillary Clinton.’ Then, backing off, the prankster wrote: ‘Hair’s got more of a choppy fringe, though.
After Kushner’s private email use was revealed, Lowell issued a statement saying: ‘All non-personal emails were forwarded to his official address and all have been preserved in any event.’
The exchange, through the ruse, suggests that he made the statement without the benefit of seeing Kushner’s emails.
Former federal prosecutor Renato Mariotti told Business Insider he was ‘shocked to learn that Kushner’s lawyer did not review the relevant emails before issuing a statement making assertions about what was in them and how many there were.’
The same prankster was able to fool Ty Cobb, who is defending the Russia probe from the White House, by posing as White House head of social media Dan Scavino earlier this month.
At the end of that exchange, Cobb wrote that it is a felony to impersonate a government official.
White House attorney Ty Cobb also got tricked by the prankster