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Vice President Mike Pence reportedly used a private email account to conduct public business, including homeland security matters, while he was governor of Indiana. Records of the emails were obtained by IndyStar through a public records request. Dwight Adams/IndyStar

Vice President-elect Mike Pence speaks to members of the media while meeting with House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2016.(Photo: Andrew Harnik/AP)

Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at timesdiscussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues.

Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pencecommunicated via his personal AOL accountwith top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governors residence to the states response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pences top state homeland security adviser relayed an update from the FBI regarding the arrests of several men on federal terror-related charges.

Cyber-security experts say the emails raise concerns about whether such sensitive information was adequately protected from hackers, given thatpersonal accounts like Pence's are typically less secure than government email accounts. In fact, Pence's personal account was hacked last summer.

Furthermore, advocates for open governmentexpressed concernsabout transparency because personal emails aren't immediately captured on state servers that are searched in response to public records requests.

FRIDAY UPDATE: Pence turns over 13 boxes of emails

Pence's office in Washington said in a written statement Thursday: "Similar to previous governors, during his time as Governor of Indiana, Mike Pence maintained a state email account and a personal email account. As Governor, Mr. Pence fully complied with Indiana 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 Indianas Access to Public Records Act.

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb's office released 29pages of emails from Pence's AOL account, but declined to release an unspecified number of othersbecause thestate considers themconfidential and too sensitive to release to the public.

That's of particular concernto Justin Cappos, a computer security professor at New York University's Tandon School of Engineering. Its one thing to have an AOL account and use it to send birthday cards to grandkids," he said. "But its another thing to use it to send and receive messages that are sensitive and could negatively impact people if that information is public.

Indiana law does not prohibit public officials from using personal email accounts, although the law is generally interpreted to mean that official business conducted on private email must be retained for public record purposes.

PENCE RESPONDS:Mike Pence: 'No comparison' between his, Hillary Clinton's use of emails

Pence's office saidhis campaignhired outside counsel as he was departing as governorto review his AOL emails and transfer any involving public business to the state.

Concerns also surrounded Hillary Clintons use of a private server and email account during her tenure as secretary of state. Pence as governor would not have dealt with national security issues as sensitive or as broad as those handled by Clinton in her position or with classified matters.

Pence fiercely criticized Clinton throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, accusing her of trying to keep her emails out of public reach and exposing classified information to potential hackers.

Pence spokesman Marc Lotter called any comparisons between Pence and Clinton "absurd," noting that Pence didn't deal with federally classified informationas governor. While Pence used a well-known consumer email provider, Clinton had a private server installed in her home, he said.

Cybersecurity experts say Pences emails were likely just as insecureas Clintons. While there has been speculation about whether Clinton's emails were hacked, Pences account was actually compromised last summer by a scammer who sent an email to his contacts claiming Penceand hiswife were stranded in the Philippines and in urgent need of money.

Gov. Mike Pence's personal AOL account was recently hacked. Wochit

Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer at computer security company WatchGuard Technologies, said theemail accounts of Pence and Clinton were probably about equally vulnerable to attacks.

"In this case, you know the email address has been hacked, he said. It would be hypocritical to consider this issue any different than a private email server.

He and other experts say personal accounts such as the one Pence used are typically less secure than government email accounts, which often receive additional layers of monitoring and security, and are linked to servers under government control.

Indiana law requires all records dealing with state business to be retained and available for public information requests. Emails exchanged on state accounts are captured on state servers, which can be searched in response to suchrequests. But any emails Pence sent from his AOL account to another private account likely would have beenhidden from public record searches unless he took steps to make them available.

BEHIND THE STORY: IndyStar's long-running effort to obtain the Pence emails

Indiana Public Access Counselor Luke Britt, who was appointed by Pence in 2013, said he advises state officials to copy or forward their emails involvingstate business to their government accounts to ensure the record is preserved on state servers.

But there is no indication that Pence took any such steps to preserve his AOL emails until he was leavingthe governor's office.

When public officials fail to retain their private-account emails pertaining to public business, "they'rerunning the risk of violating the law, Britt said. A good steward of those messages and best practice is going to dictate they preserve those."

All of the emails provided to IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, were ones captured on state servers.

The emails were obtainedafter a series of public records requests that the Pence administration did notfulfill for nearly four months before Pence leftoffice.

The administration of Pences successor, Gov. Eric Holcomb, released29pages of emails late this past week. But it withheld others, sayingthey are deliberative or advisory, confidential under rules adopted by the Indiana Supreme Court or the work product of an attorney.

Holcombs officedeclined todisclose how many emails werewithheld.

SELECTED PENCE EMAILS:Here are some of Vice President Mike Pence's AOL emails

Cyber-security experts and government transparency advocates saidPence's use of a personal email account for matters of state business including confidential ones is surprising given his attacks onClinton'sexclusiveuse of a private email server.

On NBC's "Meet the Press" inSeptember, for example, Pence called Clinton "the most dishonest candidate for president of the United States since Richard Nixon."

Whats evident from all of the revelations over the last several weeks is that Hillary Clinton operated in such a way to keep her emails, and particularly her interactions while Secretary of State with the Clinton Foundation, out of the public reach, out of public accountability, Pence said. And with regard to classified information she either knew or should have known that she was placing classified information in a way that exposed it to being hacked and being made available in the public domain even to enemies of this country.

The expertstold IndyStarthat similar arguments about a lack of transparency could be made about Pences use of a personal email account.

There is an issue of double standard here, said Gerry Lanosga, a professor at Indiana University and past president of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government.He has been far from forthcoming about his own private email account on which its clear he has conducted state business. So there is a disconnect there that cannot be avoided.

PENCE'S RESPONSE:Mike Pence: 'No comparison' between his, Hillary Clinton's use of emails

As governor, Pence oversawIndiana's state police, national guard and department of homeland security, all of which collaborate with federal authorities and handle sensitive information.

The emails provided to IndyStar show that Pence corresponded with his then-chief of staff, Jim Atterholt, and his top public safety and homeland security adviser John Hill, on subjects includingPences efforts to prevent the resettlement of Syrian refugees and the states response to a shooting at Canadas national parliament building.

I just received an update from the FBI regarding the individuals arrested for support of ISIS, Hill wrote to Pence in a Jan. 8, 2016 email with the subject, Arrests of Refugees.

At that time, the Pence administration was embroiled in a lawsuit over the governors effort to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Indiana.

Hill went on to explain how many people were arrested, on what charges and in which cities before adding in underlined type: Both of the earlier referenced refugees are reported now as Iraqi not Syrian.

PENCE'S OTHER EMAIL ISSUE:Mike Pence asks Indiana Supreme Court to stay out of his redacted emails

Much if not all of that information appears to have been reported in the media at the time. But questions remain about the more sensitive information contained inPences AOL account that the Holcomb administrationdeclined to release.

Experts say there have been high-profile security lapsesinvolving AOL email accounts in the past.The company reported a major breach of its email in 2014 affecting hundreds of thousands of users. The following year, messages hackers obtained from then-CIA Director John Brennans personal AOL account were posted on WikiLeaks.

Pences own account was compromised in June when a hacker sent a counterfeit email to his contacts claiming Pence he and his wife had been attacked on their way back to their hotel in the Philippines, losing their money, bank cards and mobile phone.

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In response, Pence sent an email to those who had received the fake communication apologizing for any inconvenience. He also set up a new AOL account.

Because the hacker appears to have gained access to Pences contacts, experts say it is likely that the account was actually penetrated, giving the hackeraccess to Pences inbox and sent messages.

The nature of that hack suggests it was part of a broad, impersonal attack not one carefully crafted to target Pence in particular, Cappos said.

Its particularly concerning that someone who didnt do a very particular, very specific attack was able to hack this account, he said.

That's especially true given that at least some of the emails Pence sent or received have been deemedconfidential or exempt from public disclosure.

The fact that these emails are stored in a private AOL account is crazy to me, Cappos said.This account was used to handle these messages that are so sensitive they cant be turned over in a records request.

As governor, Pence was less likely than the U.S. secretary of state to encounter national security secrets, said Adam Segal, director of the digital and cyberspace policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations.

But much of the rationale behind the criticism of Clinton's emails would apply to Pence, too, he said.

A large part of the criticism of (Hillary Clintons) 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, he said. 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.

In addition to security issues, Pence's personal email account also raises new concerns about transparency, according to ethics experts and government accountability advocates.

Pence is already fighting in state court to conceal the contentsof emails involving his decision to join a 2014 lawsuit challenging then-President Barack Obama's executive order on immigration. The emails are being sought by William Groth, a Democrat and labor lawyerwho says he wants to expose waste in the Republican administration.

It all started with a joint lawsuit the Indiana governor filled against the U.S. government. Nate Chute/IndyStar

Richard Painter, former chief ethics lawyer to President George W. Bush, said it'sbothersomethat Pence is only now transferring his AOL emails to the state. It raises questions about whether those emails were included in previous responses to public records requests. "Thats a problem that should have been dealt with back then," he said."The existence of the private email account should have been dealt with at the time the record requests were made."

The use of personal email accounts by public officials including governors is nothing new. But the increased risk thathackers, including foreign actors, could break into the account of someone as high-ranking as the vice president of the United States is disconcerting, Painter said.

"Clinton did it. The Bush White House was doing it. Its nothing new. But its a bad idea," he said, noting thatPence'saccount was vulnerable to a low-level hacker. "If they can get in there, ex-KGB agents can get in there.Its a bad idea because of the hacking thing and the potential destruction of records."

Lanosga of the Indiana Coalition for Open Government said it's a problem that seems to cross partylines.

"Officials are eager to point the finger at a lack of transparency when it happens on the other side," he said,"but they dodge those issues when it comes to their own side."

Reporter Maureen Groppe contributed to this story.

Call IndyStar reporter Tony Cook at (317) 444-6081. Follow him on Twitterand Facebook.

Mike Pence's redacted emails could head to Indiana Supreme Court

Mike Pence's choice of AOL earns laughs

INDIANAPOLIS STAR

What's Mike Pence hiding in his emails?

With Pence gone, fellow Republicans undo his work in Indiana

Read or Share this story: http://indy.st/2lFe0ij

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Mike Pence used private email for state business

Then-Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana speaks at a press conference in 2015. Under Indiana law, public officials are allowed to use personal email accounts; the practice can help them avoid using official accounts to conduct political business. Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images hide caption

Then-Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana speaks at a press conference in 2015. Under Indiana law, public officials are allowed to use personal email accounts; the practice can help them avoid using official accounts to conduct political business.

Vice President Pence used a private AOL account to conduct official business in his former position as the governor of Indiana, according to public records. And at one point, the account was hacked and used to send fraudulent emails seeking money from his contacts.

Pence used the account to communicate with advisers about issues including homeland security in Indiana and the security of the gates at the governor's mansion, The Indianapolis Star reports.

The newspaper says it obtained 29 pages of email records from current Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb's office in response to a public records request.

Under Indiana law, public officials are allowed to use personal email accounts and the practice can help them avoid using official accounts to conduct political business. As the Star notes, the law is "generally interpreted" to require public officials to save any emails related to official business in order to follow open records laws. A Pence spokesman says the vice president complied with that requirement.

Pence's AOL account was compromised by a standard phishing attack in late spring of 2016, a Trump administration official tells NPR's Tamara Keith. The breach became public knowledge when everyone in his contacts list received emails claiming that the governor and his wife were stranded in the Philippines and needed money.

Private email accounts are usually less secure than government accounts and are not preserved for use in public records in the same way. When Pence's account was compromised, he shut it down and switched to a more secure system and then to another when he took on a national role, administration officials tell NPR.

Responding to reports about the personal email account, the vice president's press secretary, Marc Lotter, issued a statement saying that just as other governors had done, Pence "maintained a state email account and a personal email account."

Addressing the question of where those emails are now, Lotter says that as he prepared to work in Washington, Pence "directed outside counsel to review all of his communications to ensure that state-related emails are being transferred and properly archived by the state."

Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, both Pence and then-candidate Donald Trump repeatedly criticized Hillary Clinton for using a private server and private email for State Department business. Appearing on Meet the Press in September, Pence said Clinton was keeping her communications "out of the public reach, out of public accountability."

During the vice presidential debate in October, Pence alluded to the security concerns of using unofficial email systems, claiming that Clinton's email server "was subject to being hacked by foreign governments."

Pence's own email had been hacked earlier that year.

Pence spokesman Lotter told the Star that comparing the former governor's email use to Clinton's is "absurd," because Pence did not handle classified information on the federal level as governor. He also said that Pence was using a publicly available email service and did not have a home private server as Clinton did.

Some of Pence's emails were deemed too sensitive to be released as part of the Star's public records request. Security experts told the paper that hackers were likely able to access Pence's inbox and sent emails, which could have included those same sensitive documents.

Lotter told the AP that the law firm Barnes & Thornburg is currently reviewing Pence's communications as governor and that contact between Pence and his aides who were using government email accounts would be automatically archived.

NPR's Tamara Keith contributed to this report.

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Mike Pence Used AOL Email For State Business As Indiana's ...

Mike Pence, accompanied by his wife, Karen, waves as they go to cast their ballots, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2016, in Indianapolis

Darron Cummings/AP

Vice President Mike Pence criticized the Associated Press for publishing the personal email address of his wife, Karen Pence, in a story on Friday about his efforts to block the release of his emails during his tenure as Indiana governor.

On Saturday, Pence said the AP was violating her privacy and our security by publishing the second ladys AOL email address. He tweeted a letter sent by his counsel, Mark Paoletta, addressed to Gary Pruitt, the president and CEO of the AP, saying Pruitt should be ashamed of your reprehensible conduct.

A spokeswoman told CBS News the AP removed the email address from subsequent stories after learning Mrs. Pence still used the account. The AP stands by its story, which addresses important transparency issues.

The AP story followed a report in the Indianapolis Star on Thursday that revealed Pences routine use of a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues. The newspaper obtained 29 pages of emails from the governor through a public records request after a long battle.

Pence responded to the story on Friday, saying there was no comparison whatsoever between his use of a private account and Hillary Clintons use of a private email server, which Pence routinely criticized during last years presidential campaign.

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Vice President Mike Pence defended himself Friday after it was revealed he used a private AOL email account to conduct official state business wh...

In its story on Friday, the AP called the battle to obtain Pences emails just the latest in a series of transparency battles involving the Republicans tenure as governor. The report included the personal AOL email addresses of the vice president and the second lady, who the vice presidents counsel noted in his letter is not, as you are well aware, an elected official.

Paoletta wrote that Karen Pence still uses her AOL account and received vitriolic and malicious emails following the AP report. He said there was absolutely no reason to publish the address and that the vice presidents office had reached out to both the APs Indianapolis and Washington bureaus requesting their removal.

I am unaware of the press publishing the private email account of any previous Second Lady, Paoletta wrote. Your organization should apologize to Mrs. Pence for violating her privacy.

2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Vice President Mike Pence blasts the AP for publishing wife's email address - CBS News

More about Trump's team

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has declared that the media are the "enemy of the people," but his administration is willing to joke around with reporters and poke fun at itself in a venerable Washington tradition.

Vice President Mike Pence was the featured speaker Saturday night at the 132nd annual Gridiron Dinner, a comedic white-tie affair featuring skits, songs and speeches. He called the dinner "a light-hearted respite" from bruising beltway politics and dished out a number of jokes, including a dig at the Best Picture snafu at least week's Academy Awards.

"We haven't seen that many shocked Hollywood liberals since Nov. 8th," Pence said, recalling Trump's upset Election Day victory.

Trump did not attend the dinner, instead spending the weekend at his coastal Florida estate. For more than a century, every president has spoken at the dinner at least once.

But while most of Pence's remarks were self-deprecating, he also chastised reporters over what he considered unfair news coverage, seeming to channel his boss, the media critic in chief, by saying "we all just have to do better."

Most of the night, though, was good-humored with jabs at Hillary Clinton, White House leaks and the lingering question of Russian influence in the election.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who was the featured Democratic speaker, belted out "don't take my Medicare away" during a skit on the main stage. Standing just a few feet away from Pence, she noted that "this president has appointed so many people from Goldman Sachs to his Cabinet that there's no one left there to listen to Hillary's speeches."

"Does the president know you're here laughing with the enemies of the people?" Pelosi asked. "It's OK, Mr. Vice President. People here can keep a secret ... unlike at the White House."

And she said she was sorry Trump and his wife couldn't be there but offered a greeting to the first family in Russian.

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who gave the Republican address, said her goal was simple: "to make this speech shorter than Mike Flynn's time at the NSA." She also noted that Pence was "one heartbeat away from being the second most-powerful person in the country" behind White House chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Among the Washington bold-faced names in attendance were former Secretary of State Colin Powell, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway and the subject of many jokes, White House press secretary Sean Spicer.

The dinner is a Washington tradition. The Gridiron Club was founded in 1885, just after the election of Grover Cleveland. He never attended a dinner, but every president since has been at least once.

Fifteen journalists formed the club and instituted the formal dinner, in modern times held every year at a downtown Washington hotel in a setting less glitzy and celebrity-studded than its more famous cousin, the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Trump has said he will not attend that dinner this year either.

President Barack Obama attended the dinner three times while in office. George W. Bush made it six out of eight years while in office.

Read more:
Vice President Mike Pence jokes with 'enemy of the people' at Gridiron Dinner - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Mike Pence blasted The Associated Press Saturday and demanded an apology for revealing his wifes email address in a story on the vice presidents use of his personal email account to conduct state business while he was Indiana governor.

Pence complained that releasing the address of his wife, Karen Pence, was violating her privacy and our security. He added in a tweet: When we requested they take it down, they refused. The @AP owes my wife an apology.

Pence also shared a letter from his lawyer Mark Paolettato APs CEO Gary Pruitt saying that Karen Pence has since been the target of vitriolic and malicious emails which hasraised serious security concerns.

The wire service did remove Karen Pences email address after learning that she still used the account. But it also issued a statement saying: The AP stands by its story, which addresses important transparency issues.

Both Pence and his wifes emails were published Friday in a story about the vice presidents bid to block access to emails he had written as governor. The article said that both email addresses were used to conduct official business back to 2013.

The Indianapolis Starhad reported the previous day that Pence routinely used his private email account to conduct state business, including dealing with sensitive matters like homeland security issues, FBI updates on arrests and terror attacks around the globe. The newspaper also revealed that his account had been hacked by a low-level scammer.

Pence has come under fire for the emails in the wake of Trump campaign blasts against Hillary Clinton for using a personal email server for messages while she was secretary of state. (Trump also notoriously announced the cell phone numberof then-rival Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) at a 2015 campaign speech.)

Pence, who also roundly criticized Clinton for her email set up, insisted there was no comparison whatsoever between the two of them. He said he did not handle classified information as Clinton did.

Its not a crime in Indiana for a governor to use personal email accounts for business, but its understood that those emails would be maintained aspublic records, according to the Indianapolis Star.

Pence has been fighting a lawsuit seeking to force him to release Indiana emails that the suit contends should be public record.

On Friday, Pences attorneys turned over an additional 13 boxes of email correspondence to the newspaper.

Excerpt from:
Mike Pence Rips AP For Publishing His Wife's Email Address - Huffington Post