Pence gives 13 boxes of emails to state of Indiana

Vice President Mike Pence on Friday delivered 13 boxes of emails to the Indiana Statehouse one day after it was revealed that he used a private email account to conduct state business while governor of Indiana.

Pence’s lawyers turned over the emails in an effort to make sure they are archived as the law requires, the Indianapolis Star reported.

“Yesterday we received a large delivery of paper documents. And we understand there is more to come,” a spokeswoman for Gov. Eric Holcomb said.

“It’s been expressed to us that a lot of what’s in those boxes, if not everything, we already have. But we haven’t verified that.”

{mosads}A Pence spokesman told the Star that the emails include messages to and from government accounts as well as Pence’s AOL email address and other non-governmental accounts.

USA Today reported late Thursday that Pence maintained an AOL account while governor and conducted state business on the account, which was hacked last summer.

Pence communicated via the personal account with top advisers, according to emails released in a public records request. The topic of emails included the state’s response to terrorist attacks and an update about the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges, relayed from the FBI by a top adviser.

Pence and the White House on Friday insisted there was “no comparison” between his use of a private email address to conduct state business and Hillary Clinton’s personal email server while secretary of State.

Pence cheered the FBI’s decision last October to take a second look at emails from Clinton’s server “because no one is above the law.”

Indiana law does not bar public officials from using private email accounts, but they are expected to retain those communications for public records requests. 

Federal employees, on the other hand, are strongly discouraged from using personal accounts for work purposes because it makes it difficult to comply with public records laws.