Secret Service agrees to stop erasing White House visitor log data - Politico (blog)

The White House is pictured here. | AP Photo — Public Citizen filed suit against the Secret Service last week for access to records of visitors to four agencies in the White House complex. | Carolyn Kaster/AP

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The Secret Service has agreed to stop erasing White House visitor log data while a lawsuit demanding public access to some of the information goes forward.

Justice Department lawyers said in a court filing Tuesday night that, pending resolution of the case, the Secret Service will suspend its practice of disposing of the information after it is transferred to a White House records repository.

“Although not necessary to preserve the requested records, the Secret Service has stated that it will retain copies of all [appointment and visitor entry] data during the pendency of this litigation, and Secret Service has suspended auto-delete functions,” Justice Department lawyer Julie Straus Harris wrote in response to a lawsuit brought by the Public Citizen watchdog group.

Who holds the information can have a pivotal impact on the public’s ability to access the data in a timely way. Records held by federal agencies like the Secret Service are subject to Freedom of Information Act requests, which can result in relatively timely disclosures, at least in some cases.

However, files belonging to the White House offices most directly involved in advising the president are subject instead to the Presidential Records Act. That law allows a president to keep most records from the public eye until five years after he leaves office, with some records off limits for 12 years.

Public Citizen filed suit against the Secret Service last week for access to records of visitors to four agencies in the White House complex whose records are typically subject to FOIA: the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Council on Environmental Quality. They share the same Secret Service-run appointment and access system as core White House offices but have other legal duties that bring them within the scope of FOIA.

The public interest group has asked U.S. District Court Judge Christopher Cooper to grant a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction ordering the Secret Service to stop surrendering the records to the White House Office of Records Management while the suit proceeds. The new Justice Department filing argues that is unnecessary because the Secret Service has agreed to stop deleting its copy of the records and because the White House has agreed to make the visitor records available if the court ultimately rules that previous transfers were unlawful.

Cooper had set a hearing on the issue for Wednesday morning but canceled the session Monday due to a scheduling conflict.

The suit is one of several demanding access to Trump administration visitor data.

In federal court in Manhattan, several other groups are demanding Secret Service visitor logs for the entire White House complex, as well as Trump Tower in New York and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. A judge has set a Sept. 8 deadline in that case for the Secret Service to turn over information subject to disclosure under FOIA. Just what will be made public in that case, if anything, remains unclear.

And last week, a new group called Property of the People filed suit in Washington to demand visitor logs and other records from the Office of Management and Budget and the Council on Environmental Quality. That suit names those agencies as defendants, while the Public Citizen case targets the Secret Service.

The Obama administration released most White House visitor data about 90 days after the visits, although officials said the disclosures were voluntary and details of some visits deemed personal or sensitive were withheld. The Trump White House discontinued those disclosures, citing “national security risks and privacy concerns.”