Pence turns over emails amid controversy
It’s unclear public had access to AOL messages
Attorneys for Vice President Pence delivered 13 boxes of state- related emails to the Indiana Statehouse on Thursday in an effort to make sure they are archived as required by law.
The move came on the same day The Indianapolis Star revealed that Pence used a personal AOL account to conduct public business as Indiana governor, raising questions about whether all of his emails regarding state matters were within public reach during his term.
Stephanie Wilson, a spokeswoman for new Gov. Eric Holcomb, said officials have not fully reviewed the documents.
“It’s been expressed to us that a lot of what’s in those boxes, if not everything, we already have,” she said. “But we haven’t verified that.”
Pence spokesman Marc Lotter said the records contain emails to and from government accounts, as well as emails between Pence’s AOL account and other private email accounts. He declined to characterize the emails beyond that.
Lotter said Friday night that Pence’s attorneys first attempted to deliver boxes of emails on Jan. 9, Pence’s last day in office. But Lotter said that amid Holcomb’s inauguration activities, there was a “lack of clarity ( on) what to do with them,” so the attorneys brought the records back to the law firm’s offices.
When Pence learned that the emails hadn’t been delivered, he directed the attorneys to take them to Holcomb’s office.
Emails exchanged on state accounts are captured on state servers, which can be searched in response to such requests. But any emails Pence sent from his AOL account to another private account likely would have been hidden from public record searches unless he took steps tomake them available.
“We shouldn’t be accidentally discovering that officials from the governor down to school board members are conducting public business on private communication channels,” said Gerry Lanosga, an Indiana University professor. “That’s not the way it should work.”