The White House would not hold customer logs for President Biden’s private residences, the White House counsel’s workplace confirmed Monday.
That clarification got here as some House Republicans have begun calling for customer logs of Mr. Biden’s Wilmington, Del., dwelling after a number of paperwork marked labeled had been found on the his Wilmington residence. The White House counsel’s workplace famous it is not commonplace apply for the White House to maintain customer logs of presidents’ private properties.
“Like every president across decades of modern history, his personal residence is personal,” stated Ian Sams, spokesperson for the White House counsel. “But upon taking office, President Biden restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitors logs, including publishing them regularly, after the previous administration ended them.”
The Obama administration was the primary to launch White House customer logs, though it didn’t achieve this till Barack Obama had been president for 9 months, and there have been a number of exceptions. The Trump administration then discontinued the apply earlier than Mr. Biden reinstated it.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, has requested that the White House present a log of all guests to Mr. Biden’s Wilmington dwelling because the starting of his presidency. GOP Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado has additionally requested customer logs of the Wilmington residence.
“President Biden’s mishandling of classified materials raises the issue of whether he has jeopardized our national security,” Comer stated in a letter to White House chief of employees Ron Klain. “Without a list of individuals who have visited his residence, the American people will never know who had access to these highly sensitive documents. The committee demands transparency into whether any individuals with foreign connections to the Biden family gained access to President Biden’s residence and the classified documents that he has mishandled for years.”
However, the Secret Service doesn’t keep customer logs for private residences of presidents, the company confirmed.
“Secret Service does not maintain logs of comings and goings at [presidential] private residences,” stated Secret Service spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi.
That contains Mr. Biden’s Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach residences. In reality, Secret Service doesn’t keep White House customer logs. The company has entry to the logs, however these data are overseen by the White House and National Archives.
Similarly the Secret Service, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request in 2017, stated it didn’t keep customer logs of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago dwelling. “There is no grouping, listing, or set of records that would reflect Presidential visitors to Mar-a-Lago,” particular agent Kim Campbell stated in a court docket declaration.
Visitors to the White House are typically required to submit their names, Social Security numbers and different private data for Secret Service background screenings. That data just isn’t shared with the National Archives and will get purged after a set time frame. Guglielmi stated the Secret Service will cooperate with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation “as much as we can.”
CBS News final week was first to report the invention of paperwork with classification markings on the Penn Biden Center, the place Mr. Biden had an workplace after his vice presidency. Mid-week, the White House additionally confirmed the invention of extra paperwork with classification markings at Mr. Biden’s dwelling in Wilmington. But the White House acknowledged Saturday that attorneys for the president discovered six extra pages of paperwork marked as labeled at his Wilmington dwelling final week.
The Secret Service maintains a everlasting bodily or digital safety presence on the president’s properties in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach, and screens guests once they enter. The Penn Biden Center, the place roughly 10 labeled paperwork had been present in November, was not a everlasting Secret Service web site. Mr. Biden used the workplace house after his vice presidency till he declared his candidacy for the White House in 2019.
