Watchdog groups on Monday filed a lawsuit accusing the Department of Homeland Security of violating the Freedom of Information Act by refusing to release records of visitors to the White House, Trump Tower and Mar-a-Lago.
National Security Archive researcher Kate Doyle, as well as the archive itself, the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, filed the suit against DHS, which oversees the Secret Service.
The lawsuit seeks “injunctive relief ordering DHS to process and release to plaintiffs immediately the requested records” of visitors to the White House and President Donald Trump’s residences.
In 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Secret Service is not obligated by FOIA to disclose White House visitor logs upon request.
Plaintiffs filed the new lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, possibly to distance the case from that precedent. While the White House is mostly exempt from FOIA requests, executive agencies such as the Secret Service are not.
I think it’s quaint that watchdog groups think that this admin is abiding by rules such as mandatory keeping of visitor logs.
O/T, but funny as hell.
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Yeah, really. Donnie can’t force NDAs on his people, and he doesn’t want to be held to responsibility for anything, so he just ignores that which he doesn’t like.
On the other hand, the only way to combat this is to publicize it and hope that pressure builds, so from that perspective, it is good that the watchdogs are watching and barking.
Thanks! I needed that!