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US Vice-President Mike Pence used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, his office has confirmed.
Key points:
- Pence's account was hacked early last year through a phishing scam
- He used the account to discuss sensitive matters including homeland security issues
- Mr Pence's office has labelled comparisons to the Clinton email scandal "absurd"
The private email account was first reported by the Indianapolis Star, who said Mr Pence used the AOL account — which had been hacked — at times to discuss sensitive matters including homeland security issues during his four years as governor.
"Similar to previous governors, during his time as governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account," Mr Pence's office said in a statement.
As President Donald Trump's running mate in the 2016 election, Mr Pence frequently criticised rival Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state under Barack Obama, accusing her of purposely keeping her emails out of public reach and shielding her from scrutiny.
The Vice-President's spokesman, Marc Lotter, called the comparison "absurd" because Mrs Clinton had set up a private server in her home at the start of her tenure at the State Department and, unlike Mrs Clinton, Mr Pence did not handle any classified material as Indiana's governor.
But the governor's account faced security issues.
Mr Pence's AOL account was subjected to a phishing scheme early last year, before he was chosen by Mr Trump to join the ticket.
Mr Pence's contacts were sent an email falsely claiming that the governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and needed money.
After that, the governor moved to a different AOL account with additional security measures, Mr Lotter said, but Mr Pence had stopped using the second personal account when he was sworn in as Vice-President.
More than 30 pages from Mr Pence's AOL account were released by the office of his successor, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. The office declined to release an unspecified number of emails because they were considered confidential, the Indianapolis Star reported.
Public officials are not barred from using personal email accounts under Indiana law, but the law is interpreted to mean that any official business conducted on private email must be retained to comply with public record laws.
Indiana law requires all records pertaining to state business to be retained and available for public information requests.
Emails involving state email accounts are captured on the state's servers, but any emails that Mr Pence may have sent from his AOL account to another private account would need to be retained.
Mr Pence's office said in the statement that he directed outside counsel to review all of his communications as Indiana governor to ensure that state-related emails were being transferred and properly archived by the state.
This latest controversy comes at a tough time for the Trump administration.
Yesterday it emerged that the President's Attorney-General, Jeff Sessions, lied to Congress about discussions he had with Russia's ambassador to the US prior to his appointment.
Last month, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn resigned after it was revealed he also failed to mention conversations with same diplomat that happened before he took up his White House position.
AP/Reuters
Topics: world-politics, hacking, united-states
First posted