Vice President Mike Pence is criticizing the Associated Press after the news organization published his wife's private email address in a news story, even though the email was listed in recently released public documents.
Pence, the former governor of Indiana, unsuccessfully fought against the release of the records from his private AOL email account. However, the Indianapolis Star obtained 29 pages of emails through an open records request that showed that Pence repeatedly used private email accounts to conduct official business.
In a story published Friday, the AP revealed that Karen Pence was also using a private AOL account during her time as first lady of Indiana, publishing both of the private email addresses in their story. This generated a rebuke from the vice president, who said in a tweet that doing so violated his wife's privacy and security.
Last night the @AP published my wife's private email address, violating her privacy and our security...
The vice president's office also requested that the AP remove the email addresses and apologize to the second lady of the United States.
The White House and a spokesman for the vice president did not immediately respond to BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
In a letter sent to the AP's CEO, the vice president's attorney alleged that, in publishing Karen Pence's email address, the AP subjected the second lady to "vitriolic and malicious emails and raised serious security concerns."
"There was no reason to publish this private email address, and you should be ashamed of your reprehensible conduct," the vice president's attorney, Mark R. Paoletta, wrote in the letter.
When we requested they take it down, they refused. The @AP owes my wife an apology.
According to the letter, the AOL email account was still active when the AP published its story Friday night.
In the letter, Paoletta points out that Karen Pence is not an elected official.
A spokeswoman for the AP told BuzzFeed News the news organization removed the email address from subsequent stories after they learned the second lady still uses the account.
The original story posted Friday appeared to still list the email address as of Saturday afternoon.
"The AP stands by its story, which addresses important transparency issues," the spokeswoman said.
The records obtained by the AP and the Indianapolis Star this week appear to show that the two AOL accounts were used for official state business since at least 2013, while Pence was governor of Indiana.
It was also revealed that Pence's private AOL account was hacked last year.
According to the AP, in that email account Pence received updates from the FBI on a terrorism case and also included details about Pence's attempt to keep Syrian refugees from settling in his state.
The revelation that Pence used private email for official business raised eyebrows considering his frequent attacks on Hillary Clinton's use of a private server during her time at the State Department. Pence insisted he fully complied with Indiana law and told the AP there was "no comparison" with Clinton.