Journalists and open-government advocates on Friday derided the Trump administration’s decision not to release visitor logs to the White House, in a break with policy established by the Obama administration.
The Trump administration’s refusal to make visitor logs public, which was reported first by Time, was greeted with pushback by journalists working at left-leaning and right-leaning publications as well as mainstream news organizations.
President @BarackObama's ability to seek advice was not impeded by disclosure of @ObamaWhiteHouse visitor logs. https://t.co/l5hEOH5hpS pic.twitter.com/Bi7uYzCX6p
— Alex Howard (@digiphile) April 14, 2017
Trump tweeted my story in March. The only reason I knew these details was because Obama made the visitor logs public https://t.co/j2nD1OCR0m https://t.co/11mzYX3aXR
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 14, 2017
The @whitehouse will take down https://t.co/P1Vu3I65k7. The symbolism should not be lost on the American public. https://t.co/l5hEOH5hpS pic.twitter.com/7S9lC0rKWF
— Alex Howard (@digiphile) April 14, 2017
https://twitter.com/lachlan/status/852932380130193408
https://twitter.com/BecketAdams/status/852931791317082112
lol what obvious bullshit https://t.co/ZRHgFIAhEF pic.twitter.com/caN6CPc5u6
— Simon Maloy (@SimonMaloy) April 14, 2017
Area President Who Criticizes Reporters' Anonymous Sources Wants Anonymity For White House Visitors: https://t.co/AY7lyWXPPC pic.twitter.com/JT2h2Ueyc0
— Chris “Subscribe to Law Dork!” Geidner (@chrisgeidner) April 14, 2017
Michael Dubke, the White House communications director, told Time that the policy is in response to “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.”
In 2013, a federal court ruled that visitor logs at the White House are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act.
The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a government transparency organization, said in a statement that it plans to contest the decision in court:
CREW stmt on WH visitor logs—“man who promised to ‘drain the swamp’ just took a massive step away from transparency…we’ll see them in court” pic.twitter.com/yOOmpBe21y
— Bradd Jaffy (@BraddJaffy) April 14, 2017
Judicial Watch, a conservative-leaning judicial accountability organization, also issued a statement expressing its “disappointment” with the decision.
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