Cheney Blocks Record of Visitors to His Residence
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/wa...=1&oref=slogin
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 30, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 29 (AP) - A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service last September to eliminate information on who visited him at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states.
The Sept. 13 letter from Mr. Cheney's lawyer says logs for his residence on the grounds of the Naval Observatory are subject to the Presidential Records Act. Such a designation prevents the public from learning who visited the vice president.
The Justice Department filed the letter Friday as part of a lawsuit brought by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, that is seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visited Mr. Cheney at his official residence.
The letter is accompanied by an 18-page Secret Service document revealing that the agency's longstanding practice has been to destroy printed daily lists of visitors to the residence.
Separately, the agency says it has given Mr. Cheney's office handwritten logs of who visits him at his personal residence.
Because of pending lawsuits, the Secret Service says it is now keeping copies of all material on visitors to Mr. Cheney's residence. According to the Secret Service document, Mr. Cheney's office has approved the agency's retention of the records, while saying they are presidential records subject to Mr. Cheney's control.
The vice president's lawyer wrote the letter when The Washington Post was seeking copies of information about Mr. Cheney's visitors at his residence. The Post requested the records under the Freedom of Information Act; it subsequently dropped a lawsuit seeking the information.