White House refuses to release visitor logs

The group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed its lawsuit after being denied access to Secret Service records, including White House entry and exit logs, that would identify coal and energy industry visitors.

The government’s refusal to release the records contrasts with President Obama’s pledge of transparency.

The Secret Service also turned aside a request by MSNBC.com for the names of all White House visitors since Jan. 20.

In a letter, the Homeland Security Department told CREW that most of the records the group seeks are not agency records subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. Instead, DHS said the records are governed by the Presidential Records Act and not subject to disclosure under the FOIA.

DHS said it had been advised by the Justice Department, which generally defends US government agencies in FOIA cases, that releasing the requested records could reveal information protected by the presidential communications privilege.

The Bush administration fought on the same legal ground for several years in a case that is now before the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said that, because of CREW’s lawsuit, the counsel’s office is leading a review into whether to uphold the previous administration’s policy of not releasing the logs. He did not have a timeframe for when that review would be done.

Gibbs said the goal is “to uphold the principle of open government’’ and increased transparency on which Obama campaigned. But he also said that the issue of upholding precedent from previous presidents is a consideration.

At the same time, Gibbs defended the president’s right to hold meetings at the White House with undisclosed participants.

“I think there are obviously occasions in which the president is going to meet privately with advisers on topics that are of great national importance, yes,’’ he said.

A week and a half before Obama took office, US District Judge Royce Lamberth brushed aside the Bush administration’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 FOIA.

The long-running controversy over shielding the identities of visitors to the White House and to the personal residence of the vice president is wrapped up in the influencing peddling scandal involving now-imprisoned lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

In the spring of 2006 when various groups were trying to find out the dates of Abramoff’s White House visits, the White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement declaring the Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.

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The comment raised new doubts about whether the administration would stick with its predecessor’s plan to put US interceptors in Poland and a radar station in the Czech Republic, which has been coolly received by Russia and some in Europe.

“We are looking at the alternatives in Europe, including the Polish-Czech option, to defend against an Iranian missile threat,’’ Lynn told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We are exploring the cooperation with the Russians [and] we haven’t made a final decision on how to proceed there.’’

President Obama and other officials have previously raised doubts about the European-based missile defense plan put forward by the Bush administration but opposed by Moscow. But Lynn, along with General James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Lieutenant General Patrick O’Reilly, director of the Missile Defense Agency, repeatedly pointed out the benefits of integrating Russia into the plan.

Lynn said that a radar installation in Armavir in southern Russia “would provide helpful early-warning detection in the case of an Iranian ballistic missile attack.’’ O’Reilly told the panel that he had visited the Russian radar facility at Gabala, Azerbaijan, and he said both Russian radars would be helpful in monitoring Iranian missile tests. The data gained “would significantly help our development of our missile defenses,’’ O’Reilly added.

WASHINGTON POST