One of the top candidates being considered for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Running mate in 2016 has had some email problems of his own.
Tom Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa and President Barack Obama’s current secretary of agriculture, was caught up in a 2004 scandal that resulted in emails being “inadvertently” destroyed. Vilsack partially blamed himself for destroying emails regarding the Iowa Department of Economic Development Foundation. The Des Moines Register had requested the emails.
Vilsack’s response to the controversy, rather ironically, mirrored Clinton’s response to her own email scandal: he basically said he was old and didn’t know how to use email.
“I’m 52 years old, and I don’t know much about technology,” Vilsack said at the time, according to The National Review. “I don’t even know how to send a response to an e-mail, that’s how technologically deficient I am.”
When Clinton was confronted about her use of a non-secured, private email server, she claimed “it would be easier to carry one device for my work.” Two devices was just too much for her.
Interestingly enough, when lawyers with the group Judicial Watch deposed a foreign services officer at the State Department in March revealed Clinton didn’t actually know much about computers or email use.
“She says problem (sic) is HRC does not know how to use a computer to do emails — only Blackberry,” the officer wrote, referring to Clinton as HRC.
Vilsack was also found to have been using a non-public email account while working for the Obama administration.
Vilsack used the non-public email “jd@osec.usda.gov” to communicate with former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson — Jackson was also using a secret email account under the alias “Richard Windsor.” The Daily Caller News Foundation obtained the email chain in 2013.
The standard email layout for a U.S. Department of Agriculture account is: firstname.lastname@osec.usda.gov based on other agency emails seen by TheDCNF.
A 2009 email exchange between Jackson’s alias account and Vilsack’s non-public email is almost completely redacted, but the subject line reads: “Daily Climate Change Talking Points–COP 15.”
Previously FOIAed emails from the Environmental Protection Agency show that Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack used a secret, nonpublic email account to communicate with the secret email account of former EPA administrator Lisa Jackson which used the fake name Richard Windsor.
Now, Vilsack is reportedly one of two top contenders to run alongside Clinton in the 2016 election against real estate mogul Donald Trump and Indiana Gov. Mike Pence. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine is also being considered for vice president, according to media reports.
Jonathan Haggerty contributed to this report.
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