Following four lawsuits by CREW, then–President Obama announced in September 2009 that the White House would post the visitor logs online every month, on a 90- to 120-day delay, with limited exceptions. The logs contain the names of each White House visitor, the dates of their visits, and who requested they be cleared for entry.

“This case is about the public’s right to know who wields influence over the most powerful office in our government,” said Alex Abdo of the Knight First Amendment Institute. “In our view, the Freedom of Information Act requires the government to make this information available to the public.”

CREW, the National Security Archive, and the Knight First Amendment Institute requested from DHS the same kinds of records released by the Obama White House, and also the visitor logs for the private properties in Florida and New York in which the president has repeatedly conducted official business.

"This case is about the public’s right to know who wields influence over the most powerful office in our government."Alex Abdo  

“We hoped that the Trump administration would follow the precedent of the Obama administration and continue to release visitor logs, but unfortunately they have not.” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said. “Given the many issues we have already seen in this White House with conflicts of interest, outside influence, and potential ethics violations, transparency is more important than ever, so we had no choice but to sue.”

“President Obama routinely released the data we're seeking with no damage to presidential privilege, and this information is central to the Secret Service mission and thus clearly agency records subject to FOIA,” National Security Archive Director Tom Blanton said.

“We filed our first FOIA request for these logs on the Monday after the inauguration requesting information about a Mexican delegation that visited Obama,” said the Archive’s Kate Doyle. “When foreign officials go to see the President or his staff, the American people have a right to know who and when.”

In addition to Abdo and Jameel Jaffer of the Knight Institute, lawyer Anne L. Weismann of CREW is filing the lawsuit.

The PDF of the complaint is here. The initial FOIA request is here. The Knight Institute's webpage for this lawsuit is here.

About the Knight Institute

The Knight First Amendment Institute is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization established by Columbia University and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to defend the freedoms of speech and press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, and public education.

For more information, contact the Knight Institute at (212) 854-9600.

View the Mar-a-Lago record.

“The White House is hiding the Mar-a-Lago visitor logs without any adequate justification,” said Knight Institute Senior Staff Attorney Alex Abdo. “The public has a right to know who holds influence over the the president and his staff, and we will keep fighting for that information.”

Read the Justice Department's letter.

Although President Obama regularly published logs of visitors to the White House, when President Trump took office, his administration discontinued the practice, and last April it announced that it would withhold them as a matter of policy. On April 10, the Knight Institute and the other organizations filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act seeking the White House visitor logs as well as those for Mar-a-Lago and Trump Tower. In July, a federal district court issued a scheduling order requiring the Secret Service to turn over any Mar-a-Lago visitor records that were not exempt under the act.

Last month, the Knight Institute and other organizations also amended their records request to include additional visitor logs through August for the White House, Mar-a-Lago, and Trump Tower, as well as visitor logs for other private properties, including the president's golf clubs in Virginia, New Jersey, and Florida. 

About the Knight Institute

The Knight First Amendment Institute is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization established by Columbia University and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to defend the freedoms of speech and press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, and public education.

Alex Abdo, senior staff attorney at the Knight Institute, made the following statement:

“It’s a promising first step that the Department of Homeland Security has agreed to release information on Mar-a-Lago’s visitors, but what might be in these disclosures is a mystery. The government does not appear to keep regular records of presidential visitors to Mar-a-Lago or Trump Tower, and it continues to argue that it need not disclose more formal records of visitors to the White House. In our view, the Freedom of Information Act requires the government to make this information – which relates to who exerts influence over the president -- available to the public, and we intend to fight for its release.”

View the ruling and complaint.

About the Knight Institute

The Knight First Amendment Institute is a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization established by Columbia University and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to defend the freedoms of speech and press in the digital age through strategic litigation, research, and public education.