US VP defends his personal email use as Indiana governor

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Friday defended his use of a personal email account to deal with state work as Indiana governor, rejecting any comparison with the email woes of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"There's no comparison whatsoever between Hillary Clinton's practice -- having a private server, mishandling classified information, destroying emails when they were requested by the Congress," Pence told reporters in Wisconsin.

"I'm very confident we are in full compliance with all of Indiana's laws. And in my service as vice president I will continue that practice," Pence said.

Pence's remarks came one day after local media revealed that he used an AOL account to communicate with top advisers, including on sensitive topics like homeland security when he was Indiana governor.

Moreover, the account was hacked in a phishing scam last year, according to local media reports.

Pence has directed his lawyers to review all of his private email communications to ensure that state-related messages were given over to and properly archived by the state government, said a CNN report, adding that the process is still ongoing.

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

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.

The Indiana Democratic Party released a statement on Thursday calling for "full disclosure" on Pence's use of private emails.

"It seems Governor Holcomb has chosen to withhold a portion of the public work product Pence sent on private servers, and Indiana Democrats want to know why," said the statement.

The office of Pence's successor, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, has reportedly released more than 30 pages from Pence's AOL account, but declined to release an unspecified number of emails because they were considered confidential.

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."

Clinton's use of a private email server during her time in government became a major point of criticism against her as the Democratic nominee during the 2016 presidential election.

source: Xinhua