The White House does not keep logs of visitors to President Biden’s private residences, the White House counsel’s office confirmed on Monday.
The clarification came after some House Republicans began demanding visitor logs from Mr. Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, after several documents marked classified were discovered at his Wilmington residence. The White House Counsel’s Office noted that it is not standard practice for the White House to keep visitor logs of presidents’ private homes.
“Like every president for decades in modern history, his personal residence is private,” said Ian Sams, a White House press secretary. “But since taking office, President Biden has restored the norm and tradition of keeping White House visitor logs, including regularly publishing them after the previous administration stopped them.”
The Obama administration was the first to release White House visitor logs, but didn’t do so until Barack Obama had been president for nine months, with a few exceptions. The Trump administration then ended the practice before Mr. Biden reinstated it.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, requested that the White House will provide a log of all visitors to Mr. Biden’s home in Wilmington since the beginning of his presidency. Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colorado, also requested visitor logs from the Wilmington residence.
“President Biden’s mishandling of classified material raises the question of whether he has compromised our national security,” Comer said in a letter to White House chief of staff Ron Klein. “Without a list of individuals who visited his residence, the American people will never know who had access to these highly classified documents. The committee demands transparency as to whether any persons with foreign ties to the Biden family have gained access to President Biden’s residence and classified documents that he has mishandled over the years.”
However, the Secret Service does not keep logs of visitors to the personal residences of presidents, the agency confirmed.
“The Secret Service does not keep logs of entries and exits [presidential] private residences,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.
This includes Mr. Biden’s residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach. In fact, the Secret Service does not keep logs of visitors to the White House. The agency has access to the logs, but those records are controlled by the White House and the National Archives.
Similarly, the Secret Service said in response to a Freedom of Information Act request in 2017 that it does not maintain visitor logs at former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. “There is no grouping, list or set of records that reflect the president’s visits to Mar-a-Lago,” Special Agent Kim Campbell said. judicial declaration.
Visitors to the White House are generally required to provide their names, Social Security numbers and other personal information for Secret Service review. This information is not transferred to the National Archives and is deleted after a certain period of time. Guglielmi said the Secret Service will cooperate with the House Oversight Committee’s investigation “to the best of our ability.”
CBS News first reported last week the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center, where Mr. Biden has had an office since his vice presidency. The White House also confirmed midweek discovery of additional documents with classified markings at Mr. Biden’s home in Wilmington. But The White House acknowledged on Saturday that the president’s lawyers found six more pages of classified documents at his Wilmington home last week.
The Secret Service maintains permanent physical or electronic security at the president’s residences in Wilmington and Rehoboth Beach and screens visitors as they enter. The Penn Biden Center, where approximately 10 classified documents were found in November, was not a permanent location for the Secret Service. Mr. Biden used the office space after his vice presidency until he announced his candidacy for the White House in 2019.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-visitor-logs-biden-trump-personal-homes/
