Jeb Bush: Private email use 'totally different' than Hillary Clinton's

WASHINGTON, March 15 (UPI) -- Former Florida governor and likely 2016 Republican presidential nominee Jeb Bush used his private email accounts while in office to discuss potentially sensitive information, including troop deployment to the Middle East and the protection of nuclear power plants.

The Washington Post reported Bush had email exchanges involving details of the deployment of Florida's National Guard after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Bush, who left the governor's office in 2007, has vehemently defended the use of his private email server, saying it is "totally different" than that of the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton, a frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, this week said she used a private account out of convenience, raising questions about national security and transparency. Bush has sharply criticized Clinton, saying it was "baffling" she didn't consider the potential risks. Some private email servers are considered less secure and more vulnerable to hackers.

"I had a Blackberry. It was part of my official portrait for crying out loud," Bush told ABC News. "There was nothing to hide."

"We complied with the law and ... long before Mrs. Clinton's issues came up, we made them public for you to see, so it's totally different," he told ABC News.

As governor, Bush used [email protected] to conduct official, private and political business, including plans to attract new businesses to the state, military matters and judicial appointments, the Washington Post reported.

The New York Times reported it took Bush seven years after leaving office to fully comply with the Florida public records law requiring him to turn over emails at the end of his tenure. Bush's aide said he had provided many of the messages to his successor's office but the process took a long time because of the large volume of emails.

"At the conclusion of Gov. Bush's time in office, aides worked with the Executive Office of the Governor to continue to fulfill public records requests, as well as provide a full set of his official emails to the state for historical and archival purposes," Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said.