The White House on Friday released visitor logs from the first week in President Biden’s office, but acknowledged that some entries would remain secret.
The White House visitor log has the power to highlight outside influences at the highest levels of government, especially by unnatural figures. But the White House said it would, at its discretion, remove the name from periodic revelations.
“The record will be selected keeping in mind the policy of the Obama-Biden administration, taking into account privacy, national security or other concerns,” the White House said in a release.
Only 400 entries are listed in the first batch of Visitor log Posted online by the White House. The entries are from January and do not include “virtual” visitors chatting with officials on Zoom, which became popular during the COVID-19 epidemic.
Some visitors are cabinet secretaries — including Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Secretary of Transportation Pete Batigiag — and most did not meet with Biden, records show.
Records include the name of the hosting officers and the gathering site, including the West Wing-adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office building.
The initial batch also lacks a list of Biden’s family members who entered the White House grounds after the inauguration on 20 January.
In 2009 the Obama administration began issuing some visitor logs as a matter of policy to solve The trial of the Liberal Group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Former President Donald Trump ceased regular publication of visitor logs in 2017.
The Presidents General Attorney General can choose whatever they reveal about the visitors for the ruling of the ruling court Merrick Garland wrote as a judge in 2013.
Garland wrote to a three-judge panel that the president’s constitutional right to confidential communication means that the Freedom of Information Act does not apply to visitor logs kept by the Secret Service – even if they meet the standard definition of “agency records” Will seem to do. Under FOIA.
The conservative group Judicial Watch sued Obama for the entire record, arguing that they were reviewable under the FOIA and that any national security or privacy concerns could be addressed with legally defined deductions .
The Trump White House made full use of Garland’s rule to drop the disclosure of logs. Michael Dubke, then White House Communications Director Said Trump’s decision Was caused by “hundreds of thousands of visitors annually due to serious national security risks and privacy concerns.”
Under Trump, visitor records are sometimes leaked in some way, suggesting that former Trump strategist Steve Bannon hosted child sex offender Nadar 13 timesHowever Bannon stated that he was unaware of Nader’s rap sheet. The leaks were designed to hurt Bannon, who was said to return to Trump’s good graces.
At Trump’s first impeachment trial last year, his defense team cited Obama-era visitor logs as indicating that Biden joined his son’s business partner shortly before Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian energy company Barism Devon had met with Archer, where he earned $ 83,000 per month.
House Democrats attacked Trump for pressuring Ukraine to investigate Hunter Biden’s job while his father led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. But Trump’s attorney Pam Bondy argued that the elder Biden could have his hand in the deal and that there was legitimate potential corruption to investigate.
“Here’s how Hunter Biden came to join Burma’s board in April 2014: he was brought on board by Devon Archer, his business partner,” Bondi said on the Senate floor. “Public records show that on 16 April 2014, Devon Archer met with Vice President Biden at the White House. Exactly two days later, on April 18, 2014, when Hunter Biden quietly joined Burma. “
Archer was later convicted in 2018 of betraying an American Indian tribe.
A different source – A september report From the Senate’s Homeland Security and Finance Committees – Hunter Biden actually joined the Burma Board on May 12, 2014, which would have been about a month after his father met Archer, who says the report was on April 22 at the Burma Board After a day, the elder Biden visited Ukraine.
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