Judge Rules Against White House on Visitors Logs

[DealMonkey]

You suppose anyone will go to jail for this?

[One can hope]

Do you suppose the incoming Obama Administration will expose even more of the Bush Administration's illegal activity all done in the name of extreme secrecy?

[Let's hope so]

Judge Rules Against White House on Visitors Logs
Federal judge finds Bush administration illegally deleted records
By PETE YOST Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON January 9, 2009 (AP)

A federal judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration's latest attempt to keep secret the identities of White House visitors and declared that the government illegally deleted Secret Service computer records.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth concluded that the deletions took place before October 2004 when the Secret Service transferred large numbers of entry and exit logs to the White House and then deleted copies of them.

The deletions ceased after the archivist to the United States instructed the Secret Service to stop the practice and after various private organizations went to court in an effort to gain access to the logs, according to papers filed in the case. The deletions go back at least as far as 2001, the government's papers added, the year President George W. Bush took office.

Lamberth's ruling brushed aside the government's argument that revealing Secret Service logs would impede the president's ability to perform his constitutional duties.

The court said that the likelihood of harm is not great enough to justify curtailing the public disclosure goals of the Freedom of Information Act.

While the case was a setback for the Bush White House, the effect of the claim of a presidential communications privilege succeeded in dragging out the lawsuit until the end of the Bush administration.

A watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, asked for the records in 2006 to determine whether nine conservative religious leaders visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence. A separate lawsuit by CREW seeks any Secret Service logs for White House visits by a Texas businessman who allegedly tried to sell access to administration officials in exchange for contributions to Bush's presidential library fund.

On Friday, CREW's chief counsel, Anne Weismann, said the group hopes the incoming Obama administration takes heed of the court's decision and ensures that Secret Service records are available to the public.

Link

I grow tired of an Administration who is willing to break any law, any rule, in order to keep its dealing secret. Interesting to note that the GOP used the logs to their own advantage - in both the Lewisnky scandal and the Denise Rich/Marc Rich pardon scandal - oh, but now they are off limits!

Uh-huh, gotcha.

 

[compuwiz1]

How am I not surprised? They're lower than snail shit.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

All the good stuff is gone. This is what burned Clinton, and while he sucks at virtually everything, keeping secrets is something he does well.

 

[kage69]

Crooks, plain and simple. Cheney and Rove should have their fat corrupt asses in a federal stockade for the white-washing they pulled over ducking the blame for 9/11. The first in a long list of affronts to law, ethics, and justice, sadly.

Let the simpleton go back to his puzzle and retain what little dignity we have for that office. Cheney and Rove should be in front of a damn jury at the very least.

 

[Fear No Evil]

This is seriously going to impact his re-election.

 

[kage69]

This is seriously going to impact his re-election.

This attitude is just one of the reasons ass licking Cheney/Bush sycophants are the huge joke they are: years of corruption and non-stop failure is dismissed by them basically with a "Oh well, it's in the past, he's on his way out, big deal" attitude. Typical of of the GOP view on accountability, I know, but how funny is it when the same crowd tries to sound concerned over executive ethics? Like, I dunno, some snarky and incredibly inane signature about a figure who hasn't even taken office yet.

Just shut up. No wait, what am I saying? Please do continue your apathy towards executive conduct while at the same time trying to appear concerned about "political values." This ongoing display of neoconservative hypocrisy is what is helping you morons return to being a small, inconsequential group of loud idiots.


Seriously though, your sig did give me a laugh (thanks! Got a long drive ahead of me, I needed it). Brings to mind a hypothetical analog of some Somali getting indignant because some Detroit drug-dealer moved to Mogadishu, and well shit, there goes the neighborhood! :laugh: