Jeb Bush used personal email while governor to discuss public issues
Likely Republican presidential candidate discussed Florida's National Guard and nuclear power plant security on account [email protected]
Likely 2016 Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush used his personal email while governor of Florida to discuss troop deployments, nuclear plant protection and other such matters, according to a review of publicly released records.
It follows the revelations that Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, also seen as a likely presidential candidate, had used a personal email account exclusively during her time as secretary of state, raising questions about security and transparency.
Democrats have attempted to divert the focus on Clinton's use of a personal email account to conduct work as US secretary of state by saying that Bush used the same practice in Florida, where he was the state's governor from 1999 to 2007.
Bush's email server was housed at the governor's office in Tallahassee during his two terms; he took it with him when he left office in 2007. Clinton's main server was at her family home.
Bush released a few hundred thousand emails from his time as governor, and his aides say the rest are accessible by the state of Florida through freedom of information requests. He did not release emails he deemed private.
In one email sent four days after the September 11 terrorist attacks, the top general for the Florida Air National Guard told Bush that "we are actively planning sequences in preparation for mobilisation orders should they come".