Privacy concerns

What could possibly go wrong?

The Trump Administration will not disclose logs of those who visit the White House complex, breaking with his predecessor, the White House announced Friday.

The decision, after nearly three months of speculation about the fate of the records, marks a dramatic from the Obama Administration’s voluntary disclosure of more than 6 million records during his presidency. The U.S. Secret Service maintains the logs, formally known as the Workers and Visitors Entry System, for the purpose of determining who can access to the 18-acre complex.

White House communications director Michael Dubke said the decision to reverse the Obama-era policy was due to “the grave national security risks and privacy concerns of the hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.”

Right. Sure. Nothing at all to do with Trump’s wanting to conceal his many ongoing conflicts of interest and the people who help him perpetuate them.

Trump officials are quick to point out that the Obama Administration fought in federal court to preserve the right to redact and withhold records, successfully appealing a lower court ruling requiring their release to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. But seeking to live up to Obama’s promise to run “the most transparent administration in history,” his Administration voluntarily disclosed the logs.

But those logs were incomplete—often obviously so. The Obama-era process allowed the White House Counsel’s office to unilaterally redact records of those visiting the complex for any reason. The Obama Administration, for instance, took a wide-ranging view of what were considered personal events hosted by the Obamas, leaving off celebrity sightings and meetings with top donors.

They considered meetings with top donors “personal”?

So we’re going from bad to worse. Spiffy.

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