A Republican political action committee is looking to attack Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a long-time Clinton supporter, for his private emails.
America Rising PAC executive editor Colin Reed filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Thursday with Virginia officials, calling on McAuliffe to hand over “copies of all communications pertaining to government business sent to or from the personal email accounts of Gov. McAuliffe.”
{mosads}Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has been dogged with criticism about her use of a private email server while serving at the State Department.
Earlier this week, McAuliffe — who was co-chairman of Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign — told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that he was glad Clinton has since apologized for her use of two email servers.
“She shouldn’t have done it — she should have had two separate systems, as most people do,” McAuliffe told the Times-Dispatch. “I think you should always have separate accounts.”
“I have separate accounts. I carry two phones — one has my state information on it, then I have a phone for my personal. I think it’s important that you do that. You’ve got to keep them both separated.”
McAuliffe spokesman Brian Coy said in a statement that “the Governor uses separate accounts for official and personal business and believes that is the right approach for all public officials.”
“We’re processing the request but don’t otherwise devote much taxpayer time to responding to right-wing super PAC attacks,” Coy said. “We’re in receipt of the request and will be responding in accordance with our FOIA law.”
America Rising spokeswoman Amelia Chassé said that McAuliffe should be more transparent about his own email use.
“As their long-time money man, the Clintons taught Governor McAuliffe everything he knows about politics,” Chassé said. “So it is worth examining whether he has imitated the controversial email practices of his mentor, Secretary Clinton.”