Associated Press apologizes for publishing Karen Pence’s email address

The Associated Press has apologized for “any problems” caused by publishing the private email address of Karen Pence, wife of Vice President Mike Pence.

Mr. Pence had demanded the news wire service apologize for publishing the private AOL email address in a series of tweets over the weekend.

“Last night the @AP published my wife’s private email address, violating her privacy and our security,” he wrote Saturday. “When we requested they take it down, they refused. The @AP owes my wife an apology.”

The vice president’s tweets included a letter his counsel sent to Gary Pruitt, the AP’s president and CEO.

The AP’s report Friday said the Pences used their AOL accounts to conduct official business since at least 2013, when Mr. Pence was still governor of Indiana.

Mr. Pence responded, saying he and his wife “fully complied with Indiana’s laws” and that their use of private accounts could not be compared to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The AP’s report initially included the personal AOL email addresses of the vice president and the second lady. Mr. Pence’s counsel, Mark Paoletta, said Mrs. Pence still uses her account and has been on the receiving end of “vitriolic and malicious emails” since the report.

On Monday, the AP posted a letter addressed to Mr. Paoletta saying it regretted any problems it caused by publishing the email address.

“Before the story was published we thought that Mrs. Pence’s email address was no longer active,” AP Vice President John Daniszewski wrote. “We now recognize that including her email address in the story could result in unfortunate and unintended consequences for the Pences. We regret if the publication of Mrs. Pence’s email address caused any problems.”

The AP said the Pences’ email addresses were initially included “in an effort to be transparent.”

“The vice president’s office contacted AP on Saturday to express concerns about the publication of Mrs. Pence’s email address and after hearing those concerns AP stopped including the email address in all subsequent stories,” Mr. Daniszewski wrote.