Can Politicians Use Private Email? Mike Pence Used AOL For State Business While Indiana Governor

While he was governor of Indiana, Vice President Mike Pence used a private email account to conduct business, and that account was hacked last summer, the Indianapolis Star reported Thursday.

Pence used his AOL account to discuss state business with top advisers, including how the state would respond to a terrorist attack.

The Star obtained the emails through a public records request, but an unspecified number were withheld by Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office because they were deemed too sensitive or confidential to be made public.

Pence’s office in Washington issued a written statement saying the vice president had complied with state law “regarding email use and retention. Government emails involving his state and personal accounts are being archived by the state consistent with Indiana law and are being managed according to Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.”

Indiana law allows public officials to use private email accounts as long as emails are retained for public records purposes.

The Star, quoting cybersecurity experts, said hackers gained access in June to Pence’s contacts, making it likely they had access to his inbox and sent messages as well. It was unlikely, however, that Pence in particular was targeted.

Much of the 2016 presidential campaign focused on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her tenure, and Pence was among the fiercest critics.

During the vice presidential debate with Sen. Tim Kaine, Pence said if “your son or my son handled classified information the way Hillary Clinton did, they’d be court-martialed.” The FBI cleared Clinton of wrongdoing but called her handling of classified information sloppy.

In a September appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Pence called Clinton “the most dishonest candidate … since Richard Nixon,” accusing her of trying to keep her emails out of reach to shield interactions with the Clinton Foundation.

Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said Pence’s use of AOL and Clinton’s use of a private server should not be compared since he did not handle federally classified material. Unlike Pence’s account, however, there never was any evidence Clinton’s server had been hacked.

“A large part of the criticism of [Clinton’s] personal server by the GOP — that it was unsafe or that it was to circumvent oversight — would be misplaced if Pence was using an AOL account,” Adam Segal, director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the Star. “The Secretary of State would be in possession of secrets that had more of a national impact, but at a lower level, a private email account has the same implications.”