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Title: Judge Lets Secret Service Hide White House Visitor Logs
Source:
National Security Archive
URL Source: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/news/foia ... -hide-white-house-visitor-logs
Published: Jul 27, 2018
Author: Edited by Lauren Harper
Post Date: 2018-08-02 13:38:27 by Deckard
Keywords: None
Views: 465
Comments: 3
Washington, D.C., July 27, 2018 - Federal Judge Katherine Failla agreed with government lawyers and is allowing the Secret Service to hide the White House visitor logs in a FOIA lawsuit brought by the National Security Archive, together with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). The visitor logs - 5.99 million records worth - were routinely released by the Obama administration, with no harm to national security or personal privacy. Judge Failla, of the Southern District of New York, relied on a 2013 D.C. Circuit ruling in finding that the visitor logs for core White House offices are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, although she agreed that certain other parts of the Executive Office of the President are covered. The Secret Service has already admitted during the course of the lawsuit that it maintains no records system for tracking the president's visitors at Mar-a-Lago and other Trump properties, meaning anyone - foreign lobbyists and otherwise - can pay for access to the president without being vetted or recorded. The only record the government has released so far in response to the FOIA suit is one document, totaling two pages, concerning the visit of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe - this after telling Judge Failla and the plaintiffs that DHS would produce all the visitor logs. "Our suit gave the court a chance to address the transparency deficit in the Trump White House, but the court ducked," said Archive director Tom Blanton. "Letting the Secret Service hide their records of everyone who lobbies the President is the opposite of what the Freedom of Information Act holds as American law and American values." The Archive, Knight Institute, and CREW are considering an appeal to the 2nd Circuit.
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#1. To: Deckard (#0)
I don't really see this as being a problem. I have zero doubt that any president that doesn't want any particular names listed only has to tell the SS "Don't list this guest",and it will be like they were never there.
In the entire history of the world,the only nations that had to build walls to keep their own citizens from leaving were those with leftist governments.
Visits to the White House by the Comet Ping Pong Pizza Boyz must remain confidential for national security.
How are we gonna know if Jeff Gannon pays a late-night visit?
#2. To: Deckard, Comet Ping Pong Pizza Boyz (#0)
#3. To: hondo68 (#2)
Visits to the White House by the Comet Ping Pong Pizza Boyz must remain confidential for national security.
“Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” - Ron Paul
In a Cop Culture, the Bill of Rights Doesn’t Amount to Much
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