Pence pays over $200,000 in leftover campaign funds to law firm handling governor emails

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence reported Wednesday paying more than $200,000 in leftover gubernatorial campaign funds to the Indianapolis law firm that is handling the release of his gubernatorial emails.

The expenditure was included in his campaign finance disclosure report for the second half of 2017 that was filed with the Indiana Secretary of State's Office.

Pence had been running for re-election as governor in 2016 when Donald Trump made him his running mate.

Pence's emails became a subject of controversy last year when IndyStar disclosed that he had used a personal AOL account to conduct state business, sometimes discussing sensitive security issues.

Following the story, Pence's campaign attorneys delivered 13 boxes of emails on paper to the state.

Gov. Eric Holcomb contracted last year with a private law firm to review and process public records requests for Pence's emails. The state agreed to pay $30,000 to McNeely Stephenson last year and $70,000 in 2018.

In addition, Pence hired the Indianapolis law firm of Barnes & Thornburg to review his emails during his time as governor to ensure compliance with Indiana law. Attorneys have been reviewing which emails are personal and which are covered by public record disclosure rules.

The payments to Barnes & Thornburg are the majority of the $256,745 Pence reported spending in leftover gubernatorial campaign funds. Some of the fees were for campaign disclosure compliance. Most were categorized as "legal fees."

Pence's office confirmed the legal fee expenses were for the email review.

Pence still had $1 million in his account at the end of 2017.

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Contact Maureen Groppe at mgroppe@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter: @mgroppe.