Trump’s VP Mike Pence used a private email account for official business

US vice president Mike Pence used a private email account for official business while he was governor of Indiana, and that email account was hacked, according to a report attracting a lot of attention in the US.

The Indianapolis Star, which is part of the big USA Today network, used a public records request to obtain emails sent by Pence – who was a fierce critic of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was US secretary of state – from a personal AOL account to his advisors.

In the emails, he discussed security and terror attacks. And although the office of current Indiana governor Eric Holcomb released some of the emails sent by Pence in response to The Indianapolis Star’s request, it declined to release others because they were considered too sensitive for public viewing.

The Star also reported that Pence’s AOL account was hacked last June, which caused the then Indiana governor to open a new account with the same provider.

A Pence spokesman told USA Today that comparisons between Pence and Clinton were “absurd” because Pence didn’t deal with federally classified information.

Was it fair of Mike Pence to criticise Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server when he used a private email account for official business?