Walter Shaub, former head of the US Office of Government Ethics, highlighted two messages uncovered by the nonpartisan watchdog group American Oversight. One of the messages Shaub shared on Twitter appeared to show Ivanka Trump conducting business with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos almost a month before she had an official role:

 Walter Shaub said the email was disturbing because it shows Ivanka conducting government business four weeks before she was givien an actual title.

"Our investigation had already uncovered several emails sent between Ivanka and top cabinet officials, including this one to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.," Shaub tweeted.

In one email a month before Ivanka Trump became a government official, she refers to a White House Official her own "chief of staff."

The organisation uncovered the messages in 2017 via a Freedom of Information Act request. But they’re receiving new attention in the wake of allegations in former national security advisor John Bolton’s upcoming book, which claims the president defended Saudi Arabia after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi to distract from the news that Ivanka Trump had been conducting government business via private email.

That behavior was something the president railed against during the 2016 presidential campaign when the issue was Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The mere mention of the emails routinely led to “lock her up” chants at his rallies.