White House: Visitor logs exempt from laws

[uscitizen]

White House: Visitor logs exempt from laws
POSTED: 8:25 a.m. EDT, June 1, 2007
Story Highlights
• Bush, Cheney lawyers instructed Secret Service to keep visitor logs confidential
• Administration fighting lawsuit by watchdog group seeking visitor records
• White House: Keeping records secret essential to be able to get candid advice
• Critic says White House creative in finding new forms of government secrecy


WASHINGTON (AP) -- A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration.

Over the past year, lawyers for President Bush and Cheney have directed the Secret Service to maintain the confidentiality of visitor entry and exit logs, declaring them to be presidential records, exempt from a law requiring their disclosure to whoever asks to see them.

The drive to keep the logs secret, the administration says, is essential to assuring that the president and vice president receive candid advice to carry out their duties.

Cabinet officers often don't want to give up their meeting calendars to journalists. They have no choice under the Freedom of Information Act, which provides public access to some records kept by federal agencies.

But the FOIA disclosure law, which doesn't apply to Congress, also doesn't apply to presidential records.

The Bush administration has exploited that difference, triggering a battle in the courts.

The administration is seeking dismissal of two lawsuits by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, demanding Secret Service visitor logs.

In trying to get the cases thrown out, the Justice Department has filed documents in court outlining a behind-the-scenes debate over whether Secret Service records are subject to public disclosure. The discussions date back at least to the administration of President Bush's father and involve the Justice Department and the National Archives as well as the White House and the Secret Service.

The government's court filings show that the Bush White House focused on the issue in the months before Election Day 2004.

Discussions moved into high gear when the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal prompted news organizations and private groups to demand that the administration turn over Secret Service records of visitors to the White House complex and the vice president's residence.

There was precedent for the demands.

During the Clinton administration, Republican-controlled congressional committees obtained Secret Service visitor logs while conducting investigations of the president and first lady.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/06/01/cheney.secrecy.ap/index.html

 

[Cancel7]

They don't want anyone to see just how much this is a White House for Sale.

 

[uscitizen]

Yeah remember all the republican whine about who had slept in the Lincoln bedroom while Clowntoon was pres ?

 

[Damocles]

"There was precedent for the demands.

During the Clinton administration, Republican-controlled congressional committees obtained Secret Service visitor logs while conducting investigations of the president and first lady."

While I disagree that the President cannot get candid advice because a list of visitors is published, I will say this one thing:

A watchdog group is entirely different than congressional committees. Congress has subpoena power regardless of the law. This group is asking for documents that are actually outside that law, just as congressmen don't have to put out their meeting schedules.

That being said, I think the argument is ridiculous. The public knowing that I visit the WH would not keep me from giving candid advice to a President. In the rare occasion that such might be the case other places can be scheduled for the meeting.

 

[Cypress]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration.


If you were the Bu$hCo. adminstration, would you want visitor logs made public, showing male prostitute Jeff Gannon/Guckert, and male massage enthusiast Ted Haggard signing in to visit Rove and Cheney???

 

[Cancel7]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration.


If you were the Bu$hCo. adminstration, would you want visitor logs made public, showing male prostitute Jeff Gannon/Guckert, and male massage enthusiast Ted Haggard signing in to visit Rove and Cheney???

LOL Right I forgot about all of the gay fun. And Rush Limabaugh might have stopped by with his viagra for some fun with the boys.

 

[uscitizen]

Now if the republicans can just get that pesky Pamela Escort services documentation buried....