Jeb Bush Had Another Private Email Address That He Apparently Didn't Know Existed

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush had another private email address in addition to the the one associated with the hundreds of thousands of his emails released last month.

The other address,  jeb@gencom.net, was discovered in reviewing emails sent to and from jeb@jeb.org, and received more than 400 messages between 1999 and 2004, the Associated Press reported.

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Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell said the presumed 2016 GOP presidential contender didn't even know the email address existed. Indeed, records show the gencom account was not used by the former Florida governor. Instead, it appears that when Bush replied he did so by using other publicly known accounts, jeb@jebbush.org and jeb@myflorida.com.

According to the AP, Bush's gencom email address traces back to ElectroNet Broadband Communications in Tallahassee, Florida. When asked about the relationship, however, ElectroNet did not immediately respond.

The majority of messages sent to the gencom address came in 1999. In subsequent years, fewer and fewer emails were received by that account; only one message was received by it in 2004. The message delivered to Bush's gencom address that year came from a South Florida businessman, the AP reported.

The records also show several people used both the gencom and jeb.org email addresses while contacting the former governor. The messages that were sent to gencom account contain correspondence related to a variety of topics, from judicial appointments to a federal Cuban raid.

But the mere existence of another private email account is sure to raise questions in the face of the recent controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton's use of a private email address on a private server while she was secretary of state.

Clinton has denied that she is hiding anything and suggested that she "fully complied" with all State Department rules and regulations governing public officials' private email usage. But the question for voters in 2016 is sure to be one that's centered upon transparency even from the beginning.

Clinton's private email address and private server might have never been discovered had it not been for House Republicans' efforts at collecting all official correspondence related to the events that unfolded at the U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, in September 2012, when four American diplomats including an ambassador were killed.

Both Bush and Clinton are currently their respective party's frontrunners for the 2016 presidential nomination.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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