http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/01/05/white.house.visitors.ap/index.html White House uses secret memo to fight court order
POSTED: 5:58 p.m. EST, January 5, 2007
Story Highlights
• Secret Service agrees to keep visitor logs under wraps
• Memo of understanding signed during Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal
• Courts may ultimately decide whether records can be released
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The White House and the Secret Service quietly signed an agreement last spring in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal declaring records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public.
The Bush administration did not 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...........