First Eight Months of Obama White House Visitor Logs Still Guarded

The White House settled a lawsuit with the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and announced last month that it would voluntarily publish White House visitor logs on its website beginning December 31.  So one might except that the Obama administration would release similar records to other public interest groups in the meantime.

Not so.  Through the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Secret Service said White House visitor logs fall under the Presidential Records Act, and thus are not subject to disclosure under the FOIA because they don't originate with a federal agency.  The Secret Service denied the request of judicial watchdog group, Judicial Watch, for visitor log records from January 20  - September 15.

Judicial Watch issued a press release expressing its intent to continue to seek release of the records in question.  

More here.  

Court rules Cheney must be trusted to turn over records

Open government advocates suffered one last blow before Dick Cheney left office as vice president. A U.S. district judge determined that Cheney had not violated the Presidential Records Act, which assumes that politicians will abide by preservation guidelines in good faith. The ruling practically prevents "courts or the U.S. archivist to ensure that records are being protected."

A federal judge ruled Monday that (now former) Vice President Dick Cheney has broad discretion in determining what records created during his eight-year tenure must be preserved.

Absent any evidence that Cheney's office is failing to safeguard records, it is up to the vice president to determine how he deals with material, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ruled.

"Congress drastically limited the scope of outside inquiries related to the vice president's handling of his own records during his term in office," the judge said in a 63-page opinion.

The Presidential Records Act "provides only narrow areas of oversight," the ruling added.

More here.

Interesting Piece on Presidential Blackberry Devices...

Not sure I agree with all of this, but it is well worth a read....

The problem of how to classify electronic messages has broader ramifications. Private firms sued in civil actions must produce relevant documents--including records of emails and text messages--while they do not have to produce transcripts of face-to-face and telephone conversations, for the simple reason that the latter leave no record. But at least in the civil litigation context, the law in principle treats these categories the same. Absent a valid privilege, if asked about a relevant conversation that produced no permanent record, a party or party's agent must divulge the substance of that conversation, at least to the best of his ability to remember. Of course, this regime makes it easier for a bad actor to cover up purely oral conversations than to cover up email and other written communications, but for a law-abiding firm, there is no ex ante distortion of incentives for using various modes of communicating.

This much is certain: the law surrounding electronic communication is likely not going to stay the same...

Congress Works on Transparency Issues...

Future donations to presidential libraries would have to be publicly disclosed, the House decided Wednesday.

The library vote and a separate one making it more difficult for former presidents to prevent documents from entering the public domain kicked off a new session of Congress. Majority Democrats have joined with President-elect Barack Obama in promising to make government operations more transparent. Both bills now go to the Senate.

The library measure would require that groups raising funds for presidential libraries make disclosures four times a year of all donations of $200 or more.

The House has made several attempts this decade to move the legislation. Republicans promoted it at the end of the Clinton administration after it was revealed that Clinton's library foundation received a large contribution from the ex-wife of financier Marc Rich. Rich fled the country after being convicted of evading $40 million in taxes and then received a presidential pardon on the last day Clinton was in office.

The documents bill would overturn an executive order issued by Bush in November 2001. It gave presidents and former presidents the ability to delay public release of records for years. The order also states that only presidents and former presidents, not former vice presidents or the descendants of presidents, can assert privilege over records.

The vote on the documents bill, H.R. 35, was 359-58. The vote on the libraries bill, H.R. 36, was 388-31.

Federal judge orders that Cheney's records will be public

The ruling hailed another victory for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which was concerned that Cheney's files would not make their way to the National Archives because of a narrow interpretation of the Presidential Records Act.

Vice President Dick Cheney must preserve a broad range of records from his time in office, a federal judge ordered Saturday, ruling in favor of a private watchdog group.

U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly found that the records are not excluded from preservation under Presidential Records Act, which gives the national archivist responsibility over the custody of and access to the records at the end of a president's final term.

The Bush administration had sought a narrow interpretation of the act to allow for fewer materials to be preserved by the National Archives.

More here.

Advocacy group asks for disclosure of Cheney's records

The arguably most influential vice president in U.S. history, Dick Cheney, does not agree that his papers fall under the Presidential Records Act. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an advocacy group, is appealing to a U.S. District Court to prevent the destruction of documents on the wars on Iraq and Afghanistan as well as national security.

Months before the Bush administration ends, historians and open-government advocates are concerned that Vice President Cheney, who has long bristled at requirements to disclose his records, will destroy or withhold key documents that illustrate his role in forming U.S. policy for the past 7 1/2 years.

In a preemptive move, several of them have agreed to join the advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington in asking a federal judge to declare that Cheney's records are covered by the Presidential Records Act of 1978 and cannot be destroyed, taken or withheld without proper review.

The group expects to file the lawsuit today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. It will name Cheney, the executive offices of the president and vice president, and the National Archives and chief archivist Allen Weinstein as defendants.

More here.

The Presidential Records Act Hold Just Keeps On...

This, from the National Security Archive, is simply maddening:

Senator Sessions Places Hold on Presidential Records Bill
January 23rd, 2008

In November 2001, President George W. Bush issued Executive Order 13233, which gave current and former presidents and vice presidents broad authority to withhold presidential records or delay their release indefinitely. “The Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007″ (H.R. 1255) would nullify the Bush executive order and establish procedures to ensure the timely release of presidential records.

On January 22, 2008, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) brought the “Presidential Records Act Amendments of 2007″ (H.R. 1255) to the floor under the Senate’s unanimous consent rule that allows non-controversial bills to be considered on an expedited basis. However, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) became the latest Republican senator to publicly put a hold on the bill and blocked floor consideration.

Last September, Senator Jim Bunning (R-KY) blocked a vote in the Senate on the bill, preventing floor action throughout the fall. However, on December 18, 2007, without explanation, Senator Bunning suddenly lifted his hold. The next day, Senator Joseph Lieberman (ID-CT) requested that the bill be passed. However, an anonymous Senator placed a secret hold on the bill.

Since the White House has not rescinded its threat to veto the bill, it is reasonable to assume that Senator Sessions is holding up the bill at the behest of the Administration. Senator Sessions gave no explanation on the floor as to why he was blocking the consideration of the presidential records bill.

Read more here.

And in case you missed it, here is yours truly, mad as &^&# even before this latest outrage.