Bobby Jindal won’t release work-related emails 
 
 Bobby Jindal won’t release work-related emails 
 
 Gov. Bobby Jindal will not release any work-related emails that he has sent during his two terms in office. 
 
 The Advocate requested copies of his emails last month, as controversy swirled over former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s use of private email for work. Jindal has been flirting with a run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. Clinton is expected to announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the coming days. 
 
 Thomas Enright, Jindal’s chief lawyer, wrote in response to The Advocate’s request that no records exist outside of exemptions outlined in the state public records law. 
 
 “Aside from the obvious reason for excluding security information, these content-based exemptions support the environment of open discussion and full analysis necessary for staff to make recommendations to assist the governor in the usual course of the duties and business of his office,” Enright wrote in the denial, noting that Jindal only officially emails with internal staff. 
 
 Jindal’s office did not respond to a request for further comment from the governor. 
 
 He has repeatedly criticized Clinton and was asked to weigh in on the flap over her emails shortly after Clinton held a news conference to address the backlash. 
 
 “I was waiting for her to say, ‘What difference does it make?’ ” Jindal told The Des Moines Register. “I was kind of surprised she didn’t say that.” 
 
 Clinton has handed over her private emails to the State Department, and they are expected to be released. 
 
 But Louisiana residents may never see any emails Jindal has written during his time in office, thanks to broad exemptions in the state’s public records law. 
 
 The Advocate filed its request seeking release of Jindal’s emails on March 18. His administration asked for several days to look into the response and issued its denial on Friday. 
 
 Shortly after Jindal was elected on a platform pushing transparency and open government, he backed an overhaul of Louisiana’s public records law that redefined the Governor’s Office exemptions, shielding communication that would be considered part of the “deliberative process.” 
 
 Robert Travis Scott, the executive director of the Public Affairs Council of Louisiana, said his group, which advocates for transparency in government, believes the exemption is too broadly applied. 
 
 “The law is really not completely out of line to put it in there. What is out of line is how it’s been interpreted,” Scott said. 
 
 Legislation has been proposed for the session that begins Monday that would remove the Governor’s Office protections. 
 
 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, another likely candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, released thousands of emails from his time in office. 
 
 The Advocate had requested that Jindal’s emails, even when they may be considered exempt under the law, be voluntarily released. 
 
 Following the controversy over Clinton’s emails, California Gov. Jerry Brown voluntarily released 113 emails in response to a request from The Sacramento Bee. 
 
 State laws vary on whether governors’ and other officials’ emails should be made public, even when conducting official business. 
 
 Follow Elizabeth Crisp on Twitter, @elizabethcrisp. For more coverage of Louisiana state government and politics, follow our Politics blog at http://blogs.theadvocate.com/politicsblog ||||| BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Bobby Jindal's office refused Friday to release any of the Republican governor's emails from his two terms, saying the messages are either protected from disclosure under state law or personal in nature. 
 
 The Associated Press filed a public records request seeking the documents from the governor, who is considering a presidential campaign. In a response, Jindal's chief lawyer, Thomas Enright, said he found "no records responsive" to the request since the governor entered office in 2008. 
 
 Louisiana law gives the governor broad exemptions from having to disclose records, including exemptions for decision-making discussions, communication with internal staff, security information and his schedule. 
 
 Enright cited those exemptions in the refusal to provide emails, saying Jindal doesn't use email for work outside of communicating with internal staff. 
 
 "Aside from email communications with internal staff and emails with family, friends and personal business, Governor Jindal discusses, debates and resolves issues relating to official duties either face-to-face or on the telephone," wrote Enright, the governor's executive counsel. 
 
 Another possible GOP presidential candidate, Jeb Bush, released thousands of emails recently from his tenure as Florida's governor. Meanwhile, likely Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton has faced widespread scrutiny for conducting State Department business from a private email account. 
 
 When running for office, Jindal campaigned on the need for more transparency in a state with a reputation for political corruption. But under his watch, more state agencies have been claiming their records can be kept secret. 
 
 The governor backed legislation in 2009 that rewrote the public records exemption for his office, which for years had a near-blanket exemption. The changes opened the possibility of more access to records in the governor's office, but it also shielded anything considered part of his "deliberative process." 
 
 The argument from the Jindal administration was that internal decision-making should be protected to allow the free flow of ideas. Enright repeated the assertion in his letter Friday. 
 
 "These content-based exemptions support the environment of open discussion and full analysis necessary for staff to make recommendations to assist the governor in the usual course of the duties and business of his office," Enright wrote. 
 
 But the language has been more broadly interpreted than what lawmakers say they intended. Records in departments outside the governor's office have been withheld. Other agencies overseen by Jindal allies have started shielding documents by claiming the privilege and asserting it is established in federal and state case law. 
 
 The 6-year-old public records rewrite also extended a new exemption across most state agencies, allowing executive branch departments to hide for six months any budget documents that provide "pre-decisional advice and recommendations to the governor." 
 
 A dozen of Jindal's cabinet agencies claimed the exemption in response to public records requests from the AP earlier this year seeking information about the 2015-16 budget.
– Bobby Jindal has dinged Hillary Clinton over her use of private email while in office, but he appears less than eager to release his own work-related correspondence, the Advocate reports. When the newspaper asked for access to the emails, the Louisiana governor's team said that the documents were protected by exemptions in public-records rules. "Aside from the obvious reason for excluding security information, these content-based exemptions support the environment of open discussion and full analysis necessary for staff to make recommendations to assist the governor in the usual course of the duties and business of his office," wrote Jindal's top lawyer. The AP, which also sought emails from Jindal's office, got a similar response from lawyer Thomas Enright. "Aside from email communications with internal staff and emails with family, friends, and personal business, Governor Jindal discusses, debates, and resolves issues relating to official duties either face-to-face or on the telephone," he said. Jindal, who called for a transparent government in his first gubernatorial campaign, supported a law that included protecting communications tied to the "deliberative process." Fair enough, a transparency advocate tells the Advocate: "What is out of line is how [the law has] been interpreted." Proposed legislation could, however, rid the law of the exemptions.