A lawyer for Vice President Dick Cheney told the Secret Service in September to eliminate data on who visited Cheney at his official residence, a newly disclosed letter states. The Sept. 13, 2006, letter from Cheney’s lawyer says logs for Cheney’s 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 in a lawsuit by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the identities of conservative religious leaders who visited Cheney at his official residence.
The newly disclosed letter about visitors to Cheney’s residence is accompanied by an 18-page Secret Service document revealing the agency’s long-standing practice has been to destroy printed daily access lists of visitors to the residence.
Separately, the agency says it has given 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 Cheney’s residence. According to the Secret Service document, Cheney’s office has approved the agency’s retention of the records, while maintaining they are presidential records subject to Cheney’s control.
“The latest filings make clear that the administration has been destroying documents and entering into secret agreements in violation of the law,” said Anne Weismann, CREW’s chief counsel.
Regarding visitor information, the Secret Service “shall not retain any copy of these documents and information” once the material is given to the office of the vice president, says the September 2006 letter by Shannen Coffin, counsel to the vice president.
“If any documents remain in your possession, please return them to OVP as soon as possible,” the letter added.
The vice president’s lawyer wrote the letter as The Washington Post sought copies of Cheney’s visitors at his residence. The Post requested the records under the Freedom of Information Act. The newspaper subsequently dropped a lawsuit seeking the information.
The letter regarding the vice president’s residence was in addition to an agreement quietly signed between the White House and the Secret Service a year ago when questions were raised about visits to the executive compound by convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff.
That agreement, which didn’t surface publicly until late last year, said White House entry and exit logs were presidential records not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act.
When the agreement was signed in May 2006, a number of private groups and news organizations had filed FOIA requests with the Secret Service in an effort to identify how many times Abramoff or members of his lobbying team visited the White House.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press
I wonder who’s breathing a bigger sigh of relief at this news: Dick Cheney or Mistress Domina Zara?
Whew!! Close one. Had word gotten out that Dick was one of my Johns, my business would have collapsed.
One of your Johns? He’s ma worker! Straight to the center of a tootsie pop! I better be “scootering” along…
The pic says “partner”.
Here’s lovely picture of the man directly responsible for the deaths of ten of thousands of men women and children posing with his wife and grandchild… isn’t that nice…
“ten of thousands of men, women and children”…..
Don’t you mean over a MILLION civilians and 4 MILLION refugees and COUNTING…………
PLEASE GET THE FIGURES RIGHT FOR THIS GENOCIDAL MANIAC…..
how to roast a dick? use a burning bush.
As most people here know, the truth if widely known would hinder our top politicians and lead to a revolution and peace on earth. The success of the bastards depends largely upon the masses remaining deceived.
The worst criminals and terrorists on the planet are strutting around in the white house with teams of bodyguards.
The truth is stranger than fiction!
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“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.” Malcolm X
Actually, the log book burst into flames and was destroyed the last time Beelzebub signed in for a visit
I think we need to simply invoke the rule of law here. I know old trickless Dick will be upset about that, but that is just desserts for a guy who spews out such statements on a regular basis all while violating every law ever made. The Presidential Records Act actually makes all documentation like this public record. If any documents are to be destroyed, there is a process by which those documents must be submitted for review to several Congressional oversight Committees 60 days prior to the scheduled destruction. The law specifically states that the documents are to be reviewed and if deemed no longer useful by the Committees they can be destroyed by the Archivist. Otherwise they are public domain. It is interesting that many of the Republicans in Congress today had a different opinion than the Vice-President regarding Presidential documentation when President Clinton was in office. If the law is followed than these documents should be made public or someone in the admiinstration ought to be going to jail soon… BIG IF…
Sad Truth of the day: This administration is made up of felons who have committeed treason and war crimes to include crimes against humanity. We, the American Sheeple continue to stand idly by…
aum33 May 31st, 2007 12:11 pm
Excellent quote from Malcolm X
Nothing has obviously changed from his time on the planet!!!!
Thanks for the clarification of the law, neoconned. Seems like they might have mentioned that in the article…
I’m not surprised that Cheney et al exist, but they must thank God every day for the negligence of the press, to which they owe their careers, at least. So why did the Washington Post drop the lawsuit?