Judicial Watch: White House Visitor Logs are Subject to the FOIA

Judicial Watch, a public interest organization that has sued seeking White House visitor logs from January 20, 2009 to the present, is taking the Justice Department to task for a statement the Department made in an April 21 court filing. The Justice Department claimed White House visitor logs are not subject to the FOIA, arguing cases cited by Judicial Watch in its Motion for Partial Summary Judgment were "incorrectly decided" and that releasing the logs would compromise national security.

Judicial Watch maintained that the visitor logs are subject to FOIA as they are "created by" the U.S. Secret Service and that they remain "under agency control."

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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.  

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Three Articles Regarding the Obama Administration's Efforts Toward Transparency

During his campaign, Obama pledged to run the most transparent administration in history. Nextgov.com reports that open government advocates are criticizing the administration's efforts in fulfilling this campaign promise, saying the administration is placing too much emphasis on building websites rather than publishing information.

But, in a break with previous administrations, the Obama administration will release the names of visitors to the White House beginning in mid-September, reports USA Today.

The Secret Service will disclose electronic visitor logs, including the names of the visitors and who set up the meeting as well as where it was held and for how long within within three to four months of the visit. Information relating to cases of national security, extreme confidentiality or strictly personal visits to the first family would not be released.

"We will achieve our goal of making this administration the most open and transparent administration in history not only by opening the doors of the White House to more Americans, but by shining a light on the business conducted inside," Obama said. "Americans have a right to know whose voices are being heard in the policymaking process."

Archon Fung, a professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, offers his views on how the administration should go about fulfilling the campaign promise.

CREW not pleased with release of health care visitors list

The list of White House visits by health care executives released by President Barack Obama indicate that private meeting began shortly after he took office, the AP reported. The list was released after Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington threatened to sue the White House for the logs, which are maintained by the Secret Service. CREW says it will continue seeking visitor logs from the White House and that the disclosure "in no way satisfies" its request. "The actual visitor records likely would indicate with whom each official met, the administration official who requested clearance for the visitor, the time of the meeting, the duration of the meeting and, in some cases, the purpose of the meeting. In addition, no information was provided regarding any visits to the vice president's residence," the group said in a written statement.

President Obama's administration began holding private meetings with health industry executives and lobbyists at the White House a few weeks after he took office, a visitor list released Wednesday night by the White House shows.

Richard Umbdenstock, president of the American Hospital Assn., was at the White House on Feb. 4 and has been back at least half a dozen times since, most recently May 22. Other industry executives making February visits included health insurance company chief executives Angela Braly of WellPoint Inc. and Jay Gellert of Health Net Inc.

Gellert, a $500 donor to Obama's presidential campaign, was there Feb. 10, twice in March and on May 11. Braly visited on Feb. 13.

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Also, WH list of health exec visits inadequate, group says from Politico
And, Obama hold on records raises hypocrisy charge from Washington Times: "Sending us a letter is not the same as releasing the records. There is a lot of information in those records that is not in the letter," CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan said. "Releasing names for political expediency is not the same thing as transparency. This is not the type of transparency they promised."

Obama embraces another Bush secrecy policy

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration after Secret Service rejected requests for White House visitor logs, the Washington Post reported. CREW specifically sought data on the visits of coal company executives but had submitted a broader request for logs that was also denied. Obama's administration says the policies are being reviewed.

President Obama has embraced Bush Administration justifications for denying public access to White House visitors logs even as advisers say they are reviewing the policy of keeping secret the official record of comings and goings.

In recent days, the Secret Service has rejected requests from two organizations for the logs, which document the West Wing meetings that have helped shape Obama's policies on banking regulation, economic recovery, foreign policy and the auto industry.

Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration seeking release of the visits of coal company executives to the White House. Msnbc.com reported today that their broader request for logs since Jan. 20 was also denied.

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Judge Rules for Openness in Visitor Log Saga

A federal judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration's latest attempt to keep secret the identities of White House visitors and declared that the government illegally deleted Secret Service computer records.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the deletions took place before October 2004 when the Secret Service transferred large numbers of entry and exit logs to the White House and then deleted copies of them.

The deletions ceased after the archivist to the United States instructed the Secret Service to stop the practice and after various private organizations went to court in an effort to gain access to the logs, according to papers filed in the case. The deletions go back at least as far as 2001, the government's papers added, the year President George W. Bush took office.

Lamberth's ruling brushed aside the government's argument that revealing Secret Service logs would impede the president's ability to perform his constitutional duties.

The court said that the likelihood of harm is not great enough to justify curtailing the public disclosure goals of the Freedom of Information Act.

While the case was a setback for the Bush White House, the effect of the claim of a presidential communications privilege succeeded in dragging out the lawsuit until the end of the Bush administration.

A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked for the records in 2006 to determine whether nine conservative religious leaders visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence. A separate lawsuit by CREW seeks any Secret Service logs for White House visits by a Texas businessman who allegedly tried to sell access to administration officials in exchange for contributions to Bush's presidential library fund.

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Visitor Logs Subject to FOIA, Judge Says

Well, look to get your hands on these about Nov. 3, 2008...

A federal judge on Monday rejected a Bush administration argument for shielding records of White House visits by prominent religious conservatives.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ruled that visitor logs from the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney’s residence are subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. The Secret Service creates the records and is subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Bush administration, however, had ordered that the logs be turned over to the White House and treated as presidential records, which would protect them from public-records law.

In a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a liberal watchdog group, Lamberth ordered the Secret Service to turn over visitor logs regarding nine conservative religious commentators, including James Dobson, Gary Bauer and Jerry Falwell, according to an Associated Press report.

Lamberth said he did not have the authority to rule on a second CREW lawsuit seeking to render illegal the White House’s destruction of log records provided by the Secret Service. That lawsuit involved logs of White House visits by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

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