Email turns 45 years old this year and still bedevils politicians
Source: Karina Shedrofsky

Here are some politician email scandals you may have forgotten.


According to computer science lore, a computer engineer named Ray Tomlinson sent the first email message "sometime in late 1971," meaning the now ubiquitous communication system is celebrating its 45th birthday around now.
What better time to recount some of the political nightmares that email has created for politicians of both parties. Here are some of the email-related political scandals that you may have forgotten under the storm of controversy over Hillary Clinton's exclusive use of a private email system while she was secretary of State.
Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin
Palin kept a third, private e-mail account, on top of her official and regular personal accounts, which she used to communicate with a small circle of staff members, The Washington Post disclosed in 2008 after her Yahoo account was hacked.
The 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate was forced to release more than 24,000 pages of emails from official and private email accounts used during her tenure as governor.


Sarah Palin addresses the Western Conservative Summit in Denver on July 1, 2016. (Photo: Jason Connolly, AFP/Getty Images)
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Last year, the Empire State's Democratic governor implemented a policy of automatically deleting emails of rank-and-file state workers that are more than three months old, resulting in the loss of thousands of pages of official communications.
Though the policy isn't illegal, it has drawn criticism from watchdog groups in New York and elsewhere, who say automatically deleting emails raises questions regarding transparency in the government and could hinder access to public information.



New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks during the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 28, 2016. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
The 2012 Republican presidential candidate and some of his top aides used private email accounts to conduct state business when Romney was governor of Massachusetts, according to documents obtained by the Associated Press during Romney's race.
Though the communications were legal under Massachusetts state law, the former governor's own administration warned state agencies against using private accounts because of cybersecurity concerns.
The private accounts raised questions about why Romney and his aides bypassed Massachusetts' official communications system and whether they are subject to public disclosure. Brian McNiff, a spokesman for the Massachusetts secretary of the Commonwealth, which oversees handling of government records, said at the time that private emails used for state business "are public records and that retention rules apply."



Mitt Romney is interviewed on the Fox Business Network in March 2016. (Photo: Richard Drew, AP)
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker
Walker called Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server "an outrage," but he, too, was caught running a secret email network for his inner circle of advisers when he was Milwaukee County executive.
Walker's email server was the center of a three-year investigation where hundreds of thousands of emails were examined and hundreds of witnesses were interviewed. No charges were ever filed against Walker, but two of his aides were convicted for doing political work while on the county payroll.



Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016. (Photo: Thomas P. Costello, Asbury Park Press)
Former North Carolina governor Mike Easley
Several media outlets sued Easley in 2008, claiming his administration routinely violated the state's public records law by deleting official emails they considered "sensitive."
The lawsuit revealed that Easley, a Democrat, sometimes used a secret email account to conduct state business. Easley's communications director, Sherri Johnson, testified that only a few top staffers could access the account, which never turned up in public records requests for email correspondence from governor's office before the lawsuit.



Mike Easley speaks to reporters during a year-end interview at the governor's mansion in Raleigh, N.C., in 2006. (Photo: Gerry Broome, AP)
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio
The Wall Street Journal reported that Rubio used a private email account for official use when he was the leader of the Florida House, and "when the Orlando Sentinel filed a public-records request for the emails from the private account about the legislative session, Mr. Rubio’s spokeswoman said they had been deleted.”
The senator admitted to using the private account for official work but insists the deleted private emails were unrelated to his official responsibilities.




Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., speaks at a primary election party on Aug. 30, 2016, in Kissimmee, Fla. (Photo: John Raoux, AP)
The Bush administration
Though the Presidential Records Act requires White House documents to be preserved, a 2007 congressional investigation revealed that millions of Bush administration emails from a private server could not be accounted for.
Karl Rove, the top adviser to former president George W. Bush, allegedly used his Republican National Committee email improperly, which resulted in the disappearance of at least four years' worth of correspondence.
Up to 22 aides to Bush may have used party or campaign email accounts — which were issued to separate official business from political work — incorrectly.    Some of the accounts were used to discuss the firings of eight federal prosecutors, a decision that launched investigations that consumed the last years of the Bush administration.


Republican strategist Karl Rove speaks in Sacramento, Calif., in 2013. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli, AP)