An adviser at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and a longtime aide to the Trump family last year name-dropped Eric Trump and questioned the loyalty of a White House liaison in an effort to get the official fired.
The adviser, Lynne Patton, criticized the liaison, Maren Kasper, in a series of emails in February 2017, The Washington Post reported Monday. The emails were obtained by American Oversight, a government watchdog group, and shared with the Post.
In one email dated Feb. 8, Patton said HUD Secretary Ben Carson and his team “deem her divisive and disruptive, as do I,” in reference to Kasper.
{mosads}”If it helps, Eric Trump agrees that it’s best to nip this potential problem in the bud & told me to call Jared, if necessary, but I prefer to go through you all first,” Patton added in the email, likely referencing senior White House adviser Jared Kushner, also the president’s son-in-law. The email was addressed to John DeStefano, the then-director of presidential personnel, and his deputy director Sean Doocey.
In another email that day, Patton wrote that Carson’s team was “dismayed by the pace of her removal” and said Carson wanted Kasper “gone regardless of who she may/may not be connected to.”
Patton, who now leads HUD’s New Jersey and New York regions, questioned Kasper’s loyalty in an email dated Feb. 9 over comments critical of President Trump.
“She made ANOTHER anti-Trump comment yesterday,” Patton wrote. “She told a beachhead member who expressed her desire to rejoin the campaign again in 2 years not to bother. That she’d be better off staying at HUD for 4 since he won’t win a second term. [insert eye roll] But on a serious note, what’s the status?”
Kasper, though, was not immediately fired or transferred from HUD, the Post noted.
Patton apologized in an email to the White House on Feb. 11 for a “misunderstanding” about Carson’s views on Kasper, according to the Post. Carson never advocated to have Kasper transferred or fired, the newspaper reported.
Patton told the Post that the White House was ready to move Kasper but Carson intervened.
Patton also said Monday that Eric Trump, the president’s son, did not intervene in the personnel matter, and that she never reached out to Kushner.
“Eric made it very clear to me not to involve him in any government issues and to go through proper channels. It was wrong of me to misspeak,” Patton said, according to the Post.
In June 2017, Kasper moved to the Government National Mortgage Association, where she is executive vice president.