New York State

New York politicians love using personal emails

An increasing number of high-profile New York politicians have been caught using their personal email address for – and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is just the latest, but here’s why it draws criticism.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. lev radin/Shutterstock

An increasing number of politicians have been caught using their personal email address for – and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is just the latest.

The City reports that Hizzoner used his personal email to conduct government work during his first 16 months as mayor, until May 8, 2015, when he began directing people to his government email.

This isn’t the first time de Blasio has faced scrutiny over his and other City Hall employees’ use of personal email for government-related work. In 2017, a Department of Investigation’s report found that de Blasio used his personal email 1,850 times in 2014 and 2015, violating government record-keeping procedures. “City Hall employees did not consistently forward emails from their personal email accounts to their city email accounts, as they should have in accordance with their internal Record Retention and FOIL instructions,” the report also concluded.

In 2018, City Hall was forced to release 4,000 pages of emails containing de Blasio’s corresponce with outside consultants, after NY1 filed a lawsuit to procure the documents. City Hall attempted to argue that the emails shouldn’t be subject to Freedom of Information requests because the consultants are not government employees. 

Later that same year, emails containing numerous exchanges between de Blasio and one of his major donors Jona Rechnitz – previously withheld by City Hall – were unearthed after they were subpoenaed for evidence in a federal NYPD corruption trial. Rechnitz had pleaded guilty to bribing high-ranking police officers and public officials in 2017. 

Good government advocates say elected officials such as the mayor should use their government email address for government work, because that is subject to transparency laws – which may be precisely why so many prefer using personal emails instead. “New York City government officials know they’re supposed to use government emails for government business to ensure archiving laws and FOIL are complied with,” John Kaehny, a member of the government watchdog group Reinvent Albany, told The City. “But, as far as we know, there is no law that requires this.”

De Blasio has stated that all emails have been archived. All communication related to government work, whether from a personal or government email are subject to FOIL requests, according to the New York state Committee on Open Government. “Government business should never be conducted through private email accounts. Not only does it make it difficult to retrieve what is a government record, but it just invites the suspicion that a government employee is attempting to evade accountability by supervisors and the public,” Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union, told ProPublica in 2014, regarding Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration’s use of personal emails at the time.

Here are a few prominent New York politicians who have come under fire for using personal email while in office:

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg

When he was in office, Bloomberg used to communicate with other City Hall officials with a personal email tied to his company Bloomberg L.P, according to a 2013 DNAinfo report, which received criticism from good government groups as a way of avoiding proper oversight.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his administration

In 2014, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s staffers – including one of Cuomo’s top advisors at the time, Howard Glaser – were found using their personal emails, ProPublica reported, despite the pledge of transparency Cuomo made while running for governor in 2010.

It was also reported in 2012 that Cuomo himself operates on a Blackberry, using its PIN-to-PIN messaging system, which does not keep an archive of messages sent or received. 

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Who could forget the swath of fury directed at the former secretary of state when it was discovered she’d used her personal email on the job? It was discovered in 2015, that Hillary Clinton had used her personal email account – per former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s advice – throughout her four years in office and hadn’t even set up her government email during that time.

Clinton’s use of private email and devices, such as her Blackberry, to conduct both personal and work-related correspondence, prompted an FBI investigation in the midst of her 2016 presidential campaign, which ultimately proved fruitless. "I thought using one device would be simpler, and obviously, it hasn't worked out that way," Clinton said, during a 2016 press conference at the United Nations.

The email scandal became a key talking point for President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign, who referred to Clinton’s private email usage as “criminal,” inspiring chants of “lock her up” during his campaign rallies.

Ivanka Trump & White House senior advisor Jared Kushner

Ironically, Trump’s daughter Ivanka and his son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner have faced serious scrutiny from the House Oversight and Reform Committee for using personal email and messaging services to do government-related work.

In March, chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee Rep. Elijah E. Cummings sent White House Counsel Pat Cipollone a letter saying that Trump and Kushner had been using private emails and the encrypted messaging service Whatsapp to communicate with White House officials and foreign contacts, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Cummings also said that Trump and Kushner’s private correspondences were not being archived, potentially violating federal records laws. 

Trump and Kushner have denied all comparisons to Clinton’s email scandal, saying there is no “equivalency” between their use of private email and Clinton’s. “Everything’s been preserved, everything’s been archived, there just is no equivalency between the two things,” Trump told “Good Morning America” in 2018.

Trump and Kushner were subpoenaed to release all work-related emails and texts sent and received by White House officials by the House Oversight Committee in July. “The committee has obtained direct evidence that multiple high-level White House officials have been violating the Presidential Records Act by using personal email accounts, text messaging services, and even encrypted applications for official business — and not preserving those records in compliance with federal law,” Cummings told the Independent.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.