lily
01-06-2007, 02:37 PM
So, it was good enough for two presidents. This administration says it's ok to wire tap and read first class mail, but for some reason, lawyers can't find out how many times Abramoff visited Cheney? (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16491370/)
White House pact cloaked visits amid scandal
Accord with Secret Service locked up records during Abramoff imbroglio
Updated: 8:53 p.m. ET Jan 5, 2007
WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an
agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal
declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open
to the public.
The Bush administration didn’t reveal the existence of the memorandum of
understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a
legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the
production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice
President Dick Cheney.
In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration’s
lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge’s
ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.
The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on
White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records
rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the
agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Logs revealed Lewinsky visits
In the past, Secret Service logs have revealed the comings and goings of
various White House visitors, including Monica Lewinsky and Clinton campaign
donor Denise Rich, the wife of fugitive financier Marc Rich, who received a
pardon in the closing hours of the Clinton administration.
The memo last spring was signed by the White House and Secret Service the
day after a Washington-based group asked a federal judge to impose sanctions
on the Secret Service in a dispute over White House visitor logs for
Abramoff.
The chief counsel to another Washington-based group suing to get Secret
Service logs calls the creation of the memo “a political maneuver couched as
a legal one.”
“It appears the White House is actually manufacturing evidence to further
its own agenda,” Anne Weismann, a Justice Department lawyer for 19 years and
now chief counsel to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,
said Friday.
The White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.
Last year in the Abramoff scandal, the Bush administration, in response to
three lawsuits, provided an incomplete picture of how many visits Abramoff
and his lobbying team made to the White House.
The task of digging out Abramoff-White House links fell to a House committee
that collected the lobbyist’s billing records and e-mails. The House report
found 485 lobbying contacts with presidential aides over three years,
including 10 with top Bush administration aide Karl Rove.
An unsettled area of law
As part of its security function of protecting the White House complex, the
Secret Service uses the log information to conduct background checks on
people before daily appointments and visits.
The memorandum of understanding is an unusual step because it deals with an
unsettled area of law.
Federal courts will ultimately decide whether records identifying White
House visitors and who they are going to see are under the legal control of
the Secret Service or are presidential records publicly releasable solely at
the discretion of the White House.
The Bush administration’s agreement with the Secret Service “at a minimum
will serve to postpone a final resolution of who these records belong to,”
said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the
Federation of American Scientists. “This memo reflects the Bush
administration’s view of American government, which is that the people’s
business should be conducted behind closed doors.”
In the mid-1990s, a conservative group, Judicial Watch, obtained Secret
Service entry logs through a lawsuit.
Secret Service records played a significant role in the Whitewater scandal
in the 1990s, supplying congressional Republicans with leads to follow in
their investigations of the Clintons.
A decade ago, Senate investigators used Secret Service logs to document who
visited the White House during the fundraising scandal surrounding President
Clinton’s re-election campaign.
White House pact cloaked visits amid scandal
Accord with Secret Service locked up records during Abramoff imbroglio
Updated: 8:53 p.m. ET Jan 5, 2007
WASHINGTON - The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an
agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal
declaring that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open
to the public.
The Bush administration didn’t reveal the existence of the memorandum of
understanding until last fall. The White House is using it to deal with a
legal problem on a separate front, a ruling by a federal judge ordering the
production of Secret Service logs identifying visitors to the office of Vice
President Dick Cheney.
In a federal appeals court filing three weeks ago, the administration’s
lawyers used the memo in a legal argument aimed at overturning the judge’s
ruling. The Washington Post is suing for access to the Secret Service logs.
The five-page document dated May 17 declares that all entry and exit data on
White House visitors belongs to the White House as presidential records
rather than to the Secret Service as agency records. Therefore, the
agreement states, the material is not subject to public disclosure under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Logs revealed Lewinsky visits
In the past, Secret Service logs have revealed the comings and goings of
various White House visitors, including Monica Lewinsky and Clinton campaign
donor Denise Rich, the wife of fugitive financier Marc Rich, who received a
pardon in the closing hours of the Clinton administration.
The memo last spring was signed by the White House and Secret Service the
day after a Washington-based group asked a federal judge to impose sanctions
on the Secret Service in a dispute over White House visitor logs for
Abramoff.
The chief counsel to another Washington-based group suing to get Secret
Service logs calls the creation of the memo “a political maneuver couched as
a legal one.”
“It appears the White House is actually manufacturing evidence to further
its own agenda,” Anne Weismann, a Justice Department lawyer for 19 years and
now chief counsel to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington,
said Friday.
The White House and the Secret Service declined to comment.
Last year in the Abramoff scandal, the Bush administration, in response to
three lawsuits, provided an incomplete picture of how many visits Abramoff
and his lobbying team made to the White House.
The task of digging out Abramoff-White House links fell to a House committee
that collected the lobbyist’s billing records and e-mails. The House report
found 485 lobbying contacts with presidential aides over three years,
including 10 with top Bush administration aide Karl Rove.
An unsettled area of law
As part of its security function of protecting the White House complex, the
Secret Service uses the log information to conduct background checks on
people before daily appointments and visits.
The memorandum of understanding is an unusual step because it deals with an
unsettled area of law.
Federal courts will ultimately decide whether records identifying White
House visitors and who they are going to see are under the legal control of
the Secret Service or are presidential records publicly releasable solely at
the discretion of the White House.
The Bush administration’s agreement with the Secret Service “at a minimum
will serve to postpone a final resolution of who these records belong to,”
said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy for the
Federation of American Scientists. “This memo reflects the Bush
administration’s view of American government, which is that the people’s
business should be conducted behind closed doors.”
In the mid-1990s, a conservative group, Judicial Watch, obtained Secret
Service entry logs through a lawsuit.
Secret Service records played a significant role in the Whitewater scandal
in the 1990s, supplying congressional Republicans with leads to follow in
their investigations of the Clintons.
A decade ago, Senate investigators used Secret Service logs to document who
visited the White House during the fundraising scandal surrounding President
Clinton’s re-election campaign.