the election might be over, but email controversies could stick around for a while. The Indianapolis Star has reported that incoming Vice President Mike Pence is fighting to keep an email from a political ally private. If that seems ironic given the endless insinuations about Hillary Clinton’s email server, it’s because it is.
While governor of Indiana, Pence was sent a position paper by Daniel Hodge, the chief of staff for Texas governor Greg Abbott. Abbott was looking for states to sue the Obama administration over its immigration executive action. Seventeen states, including Indiana, ended up filing a lawsuit against Obama.
But the story doesn’t end there: Pence used outside counsel for Indiana’s lawsuit, hiring Indianapolis law firm Barnes & Thornburg with taxpayer money. In 2014 a labor lawyer named William Groth made a public records request for information on the hiring, looking to determine exactly how much taxpayer money was spent. When Groth obtained the records, Hodge’s paper was redacted.