In the first months of the Trump administration, it’s been said that VP Mike Pence has taken extraordinary steps to keep himself “clean” of scandal, because he wants to have some kind of moral authority for if and when Emperor Baby Fists is impeached. Pence is described by some as a Frank Underwood-esque big-picture guy, someone manipulative and clever and Machiavellian. So which I say… really? I mean, I’m sure Pence seems manipulative and clever to the Trump people, but having seen the way this dude operates, he’s not even half as slick as he thinks he is.

Anyway, Pence was on record throughout the campaign pushing the “BUT HER EMAILS” narrative. To be fair, the media didn’t need much help to push that “Hillary Clinton is corrupt because of her emails, thus false equivalency with Donald Trump” narrative. Still, Pence had a lot of sh-t to say about Hillary’s emails and how they disqualified her and how she was a terrible person because of those g–damn emails. Well, guess what? Pence’s hometown paper, The Indianapolis Star, reports that Pence also used a personal email account while governor of Indiana and that he conducted state business on that AOL account. And the AOL account was hacked. Oh, this is delicious.

Vice President Mike Pence routinely used a private email account to conduct public business as governor of Indiana, at times discussing sensitive matters and homeland security issues. Emails released to IndyStar in response to a public records request show Pence communicated via his personal AOL account with top advisers on topics ranging from security gates at the governor’s residence to the state’s response to terror attacks across the globe. In one email, Pence’s 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 that personal 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 government expressed concerns about transparency because personal emails aren’t immediately captured on state servers that are searched in response to public records requests.

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 Indiana’s Access to Public Records Act.”

Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office released 29 pages of emails from Pence’s AOL account, but declined to release an unspecified number of others because the state considers them confidential and too sensitive to release to the 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’s office said his campaign hired outside counsel as he was departing as governor to review his AOL emails and transfer any involving public business to the state.

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

[From The Indy Star]

I would suggest everyone read this Indy Star story, I could only excerpt so much but the Indy Star journalists got the RECEIPTS. They filed FOIA requests, they quoted extensively from Pence’s own statements about Hillary Clinton, and they framed the information in an extremely damning way. Damning doesn’t mean illegal, because apparently Indiana does not have laws in place to ensure government transparency on a state and local level. But still. HIS EMAILS. LOCK HIM UP. BECAUSE OF HIS EMAILS.

Photos courtesy of Getty.