Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the Florida secretary of state’s office failed to redact hundreds of thousands of emails from his time in office before Bush published them online this week.
Bush, who is considering a 2016 presidential run, took heat this week for publishing the personal information of constituents and others with whom he exchanged emails with during his time in office. The information included Social Security numbers, full names and personal email addresses.
“Ten months ago we asked the secretary of state’s office to make sure they redacted these emails before they gave them to outside entities,” Bush said in Florida at a press conference for his mother’s education and literacy foundation on Friday. “We’ve gone back to redact those emails and that’s been done. Matter closed.”
The Florida secretary of state’s office released a statement in response to a CNN inquiry said the office is “currently reviewing our process for redacting confidential information from documents given to the State Archives. “
The former governor published 275,000 personal emails also available online this week through a Florida public records request. The move was billed as a good-faith move to be transparent as Bush considers launching a presidential campaign.
Bush also released the first chapter of an eBook that uses his emails with constituents as a launching point to discuss his eight years as governor.
“We had a lot of work to do and staying connected with people through email was really important,” Bush said.