President Donald Trump will not make White House visitor logs available to the public while he is in office, breaking from precedent set by his predecessor Barack Obama.
White House Communications Director Michael Dubke said in a statement that the administration would keep the logs secret due to “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.”
The logs of visitors to the White House complex are maintained by the Secret Service. The White House will still fulfill Freedom of Information Act Requests for records that fall under areas that are considered agencies, like the Office of Management and Budget, but it does not plan to release logs of of those entering the complex to visit Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, or members of the White House senior staff.
In his statement, Dubke said that the Trump administration’s decision is one “the Obama White House successfully defended in federal court,” referring to a 2013 appeals court ruling that held the Executive Branch does not need to release White House visitor logs.
Time Magazine first reported the announcement. The Trump administration will not make the logs public until five years after Trump has left office, according to Time.
In response to lawsuits, President Barack Obama adopted a policy that made the White House visitor logs public but also gave the White House counsel power to redact log entries, including personal visits from friends.
The Trump White House will also decline to renew a contract for Open.WhiteHouse.gov, the site where the Obama administration published visitor logs along with other data.
