Political Scandals

As Indiana Gov., VP Pence Used Private Email For State Business

Vice President Mike Pence used a private email account for official business during his time as Indiana governor.

As Indiana Gov., VP Pence Used Private Email For State Business
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Vice President Mike Pence reportedly used a private email account to conduct state business when he was governor of Indiana.

That's according to The Indianapolis Star, which obtained Pence's emails after a public records request. The Star says it obtained more than 30 pages of emails from the governor's office, but it couldn't access a number of other emails over confidentiality concerns.

Naturally, that's raising a lot of comparisons.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told ABC in September, "I should have used two accounts. One for personal, one for work-related emails."

Clinton's use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state was heavily attacked during her run for president — including by Pence himself.

Pence told Fox News in October, "The American people have been troubled by the fact that Hillary Clinton continues to refuse to turn over some 33,000 emails."

Mike Pence Calls On Conservatives To Mobilize In CPAC Speech
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The vice president touched on a variety of topics, including the military, health insurance and education reform.

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Pence wasn't handling the same level of classified material as Clinton. His emails did touch on some homeland security issues, but nothing like the state secrets Clinton was accused of exposing to malicious hackers.

But despite numerous signs of attacks, there was never any solid evidence Clinton's email server was compromised. Pence was definitely hacked.

A counterfeit email sent from Pence's AOL account last year claimed the then-governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and urgently needed money. The governor, who wasn't visiting the island nation, changed his account details.

A spokesperson for Pence told the Star any comparisons between Clinton and Pence over email use were absurd.