Free Republic

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge is ruling against the Secret Service, saying records of visitors to the White House are subject to Freedom of Information Act requests. The Secret Service had argued that the visitors' logs were presidential records exempt from public disclosure. But U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Wednesday disagreed. Howell sided with government watchdog group Judicial Watch, which had sued for records from the first eight months of the Obama administration. Howell said the Secret Service must disclose the records, except individual entries that fall under exemptions like for national security. In September 2009, President Barack...

President Barack Obama has won praise from the media — and from himself — for putting the White House visitor logs online. Yet the visitor logs may hide more than they reveal. The White House is still holding back “tens of thousands” of visitor logs, according to congressional testimony last week by Tom Fitton, President of Judicial Watch, who also added that “the Obama administration is less transparent than the Bush administration.” We also know that some of the most important presidential visitors don’t even walk into the White House. The administration meets K Street lobbyists at Caribou Coffee, and...