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Rep. Steny Hoyer wrongly claimed that Vice President Mike Pence used a private server when he was governor of Indiana. Pence did use a personal AOL account for some government business, but he did not have a private server.

Hoyer, the House Democratic whip, brought up the vice presidents past email practices in a July 25 interview on CNNs New Day.

The Maryland Democratwas askedabout President Donald Trumps tweet early that morning criticizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions for taking a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes. Trump referenced Clintons use of a private server and private email account to conduct business while she was secretary of state under President Barack Obama.

Trumps tweet is also problematic.

For starters, Sessions cannot take any position on an investigation concerning the presidential campaign.As a former adviser to the Trump campaign, the attorney general hasrecusedhimself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States. (Trumps mention of the DNC server is a reference to theRussian governments hacking of the Democratic National Committee computer systems. Former FBI Director James Comey has testified that his agency asked DNC officials for access to the partys servers after they were hacked, but the DNC refused the requests. There is no evidence that Clinton committed any crimes regarding the security breach of the DNC servers, and any campaign-related investigation would be covered by Sessions recusal.)

We also note that the FBI did investigateClintons email use, and the FBI director at the time recommended that no charges be brought against her or her aides a recommendation that was accepted by then-U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

CNNs Chris Cuomo asked Hoyer about the presidents criticism of his own attorney general. Hoyer dismissedit as a distraction. But in doing so, he got the facts wrong.

Hoyer, July 25: Well, you know, theres no smoke there, frankly, and this business about the use of the private server. Pence used a private server when he was governor of Indiana. I just think, frankly, all of that is distractions.

As the Indianapolis Star revealed in March, Pence routinely used a personal AOL account to conduct government business. The paper obtained nearly 30 such emails through a public records request, and an official with the vice presidents office told the paper that those were a small fraction of state-business messages associated with the AOL account.

But, contrary to Hoyers statement, Pence did not have a private server, nor did he use his personal email account exclusively for government business, as Clinton did. Pence also used a state government account.

There are other significant differences between the email practices of the two public officials.

The state of Indiana does not prohibit the use of personal email for government business as long as the emails are preserved, and the former governor took steps before he left office to preserve them, the Star story said. Pences 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, the paper wrote.

In Clintons case, the State Departments inspector general said the department has had policies dating to 2005 that require normal day-to-day operations to be conducted on government servers. While occasional use of personal email for State business is permitted, Clinton should have turned over all work-related emails before she left office and did not until 21 months later.

Also, the IG said department policies adopted in 2007 requiredthat non-department servers used to process or store department information meet the same security controls as the departments systems and be registered with the department. Clinton did not adhere to either policy, according to an IG report issued May 26, 2016. (For more, see our story IG Report on Clintons Emails.)

Hoyer is entitled to his opinion about Trumps tweet, but in defending Clinton, he gets the facts wrong about Pences use of personal email for government business.

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2017-07-26 15:53:24 UTC

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Claimed Vice President Mike Pence used a private server when he was governor of Indiana for government business.

Rep. Steny Hoyer

Maryland Democrat

CNNs New Day

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

2017-07-25

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Hoyer Revisits Mike Pence's Emails - FactCheck.org