White House press secretary Jen Psaki says the Biden administration cannot release visitor logs from the Trump White House because they are “under the purview of the National Archives,” reports The Hill.
Trump discontinued the practice of releasing the logs for public consumption in 2017, citing national security concerns. The decision marked a reversal of the Obama-era practice and faced legal challenges for its lack of transparency. The Clinton and Bush administrations also restricted access to the logs.
Psaki three weeks ago said Biden would resume the tradition, “for the sake of clarity.”
"Also true that visitors will be limited for some time because safety during the pandemic is top priority,” she tweeted.
The logs detail who visits the president and his staff on official business and enable the public to know which lobbyists, political donors and others are gaining access to the chief executive and his aides on a daily basis.
The Trump administration later settled a lawsuit in 2018 to allow monthly publication of visitor logs for some White House offices, including the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB.
Psaki told reporters the Biden White House would release the visitor logs on a quarterly basis.
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