President Barack Obama’s administration is adhering, at least for now, to a Bush administration policy that White House visitor logs are presidential records that the public has no right to see.
A liberal government watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed suit Tuesday after the group’s request for information on White House visits by coal industry executives was refused by the Secret Service.
“The Obama administration, by continuing the Bush administration’s position that the public has no right to know who visits the White House, is now siding with secrecy, not transparency, and is further deepening the gap between its rhetoric and its actual practices,” said Anne Weismann, an attorney for CREW.
At a briefing for reporters on Tuesday, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Obama’s advisers are still considering how to deal with the issue of public access to the names of those who visit the president or other top officials, an issue which has spawned several previous court fights. “The White House is reviewing that policy, based on some of that litigation,” Gibbs said.
Gibbs also defended the president’s right to hold secret meetings. -Politico Story
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