The first lady used a private email account for White House business according to a former adviser and friend.
Melania Trump used her personal email account to conduct government business at the White House, according to a former friend and adviser who has written a tell-all book about the first lady.
Stephanie Winston Wolkoff said she and Trump didn't use official accounts when emailing about official matters, Wolkoff told The Washington Post in an interview.
Wolkoff recently published “Melania and Me: The Rise and Fall of My Friendship with the First Lady,” but the remarks about personal email accounts are not in the book.
“Melania and I both didn’t use White House emails," the author told the paper, adding that the first lady regularly used a private Trump Organization account, a MelaniaTrump.com account, iMessage and the encrypted Signal app.
The allegations blew up social media, where the hashtag #LockHerUp erupted with thousands of posts.
The hashtag is a reference to Donald Trump's campaign cry of "Lock Her Up!" It was directed at his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, over her use of a private account while serving as Secretary of State.
The paper said its staff had viewed messages that appeared to be from Melania Trump's private email and messaging accounts. They included talks about government contracts and staff hirings, traveling schedules for the president and first lady, and financial information about the inauguration ceremony and events.
Other members of the Trump family have been examined for allegedly using private accounts for official business.
Last year, the House Oversight Committee began looking into the use of private accounts for government business by Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, the paper reported.
Wolkoff was ousted from the White House and later cooperated with multiple investigations into spending on President Trump’s inauguration. She has she felt "betrayed " that her former friend did not come to her defense.
The White House did not immediately respond to the email allegations. Earlier, the president had criticized Wolkoff after she said she had secretly recorded conversations with the first lady.
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