New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan is set to endorse Hillary Clinton for president on Friday. The endorsement doesn’t come as a surprise – Hassan and Clinton’s shared records of failed leadership and out-of-touch tax-and-spend policies are well-documented. The two also share another key similarity: a lack of transparency when it comes to the use of private email for official business.
Clinton’s use of a private server and ensuing email scandal has completely derailed her campaign, to the point where she is trailing Bernie Sanders in six consecutive New Hampshire polls and “email” is the word voters most closely associate with her.
Hassan has also come under scrutiny for using a private email address to conduct state business. The Concord Monitor reported:
During the month of February, Hassan did use her personal email account on two occasions to conduct official state business, said Legal Counsel Mary Ann Dempsey, who reviewed Hassan’s personal account in response to the Monitor’s right-to-know request.
Hassan “inadvertently communicated about governmental business to staff on her personal account,” she said. About what exactly? It’s unclear.
Despite the fact that the emails sent from Hassan’s personal account related to official business, her office took a page from Clinton’s book and stonewalled open records requests from the media:
“Those documents constitute attorney-client privilege, drafts, notes, and/or deliberative processes under the Executive Privilege and are therefore exempt from disclosure,” Dempsey wrote in a memo.
The other 47 emails sent in February were not released to the Monitor because of similar reasons, Dempsey said.
Maybe Hassan is hoping to pick up some tips on server wiping or SnapChat from Clinton during tomorrow’s event.