Mitch Landrieu’s Transparency On Private Emails Does Not Seem Transparent

Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans has decided that he will not continue to use his private email address while discussing city business. But, the decision by Landrieu comes after he was caught by the media using the private email account.

Last week, an investigation by WDSU found that Landrieu has been using a private email account, similar to that of 2016-presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, who has come under fire for her use of private email accounts.

After the news broke, Landrieu’s spokesman said that the Democrat mayor does have an official city account that is listed on the city’s website, he just has opted to use a private email account instead.

Now, Landrieu has vowed to begin using the public email address to conduct city business, rather than the private email address. The question is, though, how can we trust that Landrieu will not continue to use the private email account?

Last year, when WDSU looked at a three month window of the public email account, the investigations team found that Landrieu had only sent one outgoing message from his official city email account. And when WDSU tried to obtain a number of emails from the private account, Landrieu’s office asked that they narrow the time-frame down.

The mayor’s office has continued to say that Landrieu has been transparent through the entire process, but WDSU has seemed to have had trouble obtaining documents from the city, according to their own reporting.

Also, now that Landrieu will use the city email account, apparently, the private emails from his private account may not be held to the same public records laws. That means that if Landrieu does continue to use the private email account for city business, he could do so without possibly having to make those records public.

This report is not to suggest that Landrieu will continue to use the private account to obstruct transparency within city business, but rather, the report simply calls into account questions that should be noted. 

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