By Scott Bauer
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. — Likely presidential candidate Scott Walker’s spokeswoman blasted Democrat Hillary Clinton on Thursday for using a personal email account during the four years she was secretary of state — even though the Wisconsin governor did something similar when he was Milwaukee County executive.
The State Department is reviewing a huge cache of Clinton’s emails for possible release after revelations she conducted official business as secretary of state using a private account.
Walker used a private email account to communicate with aides over a secret router system installed in his county executive’s office in 2010.
“Hillary Clinton’s potential evasion of laws is something she should answer questions about,” said Kirsten Kukowski, spokeswoman for Walker’s political committee Our American Revival, in an email to The Associated Press. “Wisconsin has a strong open records law with a broad presumption of access to records and the governor has very specific policies in place in his office to assure that the laws are complied with fully.”
Before he was governor, Walker’s county executive staff set up the secret email system where Walker and others exchanged messages related to government business, campaign fundraising and politics.
Two former Walker associates were convicted for campaigning on government time as part of an investigation that ended in 2013.
Tens of thousands of pages of emails collected by prosecutors as part of that investigation have been publicly released since the close of the probe.
Walker was never charged or convicted as a result of the investigation.
Walker’s staff has said that no such secret network exists in the governor’s office. And Walker said last year that when he became governor in 2011 he created a “clear distinction between things that are political and official.”
