Trump Administration Kills Open.Gov, Will Not Release White House Visitor Logs (techdirt.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: It will never be said that the Trump presidency began with a presumption of openness. His pre-election refusal to release his tax returns set a bit of precedent in that regard. The immediate post-election muffling of government agency social media accounts made the administration's opacity goals um clearer. So, in an unsurprising move, the Trump administration will be doing the opposite of the Obama administration. The American public will no longer have the privilege of keeping tabs on White House visitors. TIME reports: "The Trump Administration will not disclose logs of those who visit the White House complex, breaking with his predecessor, the White House announced Friday. 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.' Instead, the Trump Administration is relying on a federal court ruling that most of the logs are 'presidential records' and are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act." So, to further distance himself from the people he serves (and the people who elected him), Trump and his administration have shut down the transparency portal put in place by the previous Commander-in-Chief: "White House officials said the Administration is ending the contract for Open.gov, the Obama-era site that hosted the visitor records along with staff financial disclosures, salaries, and appointments. An official said it would save $70,000 through 2020 and that the removed disclosures, salaries and appointments would be integrated into WhiteHouse.gov in the coming months."

Comments

Re:Obama was an exception, not Trump

[quonset]

with the way people are getting blacklisted for even meeting with trump or his team it makes perfect sense on why they wouldnt want to let that info out

If you're that much of a coward to not suffer the consequences of your actions, what else are you trying to hide?

The excuses from the con artist administration are just that, excuses. Bush did the exact same thing when he let the oil companies dictate our energy policy, claiming he needed "unbiased" information.

The swamp keeps filling and all people do is make excuses for why it's happening.

Once again, Hillary did not win.

[SuperKendall]

Will my bigoted worldview compel me to sell out my country to Russia, when a Russian agent assumes the Presidency?

I know y'all think she really won because of the popular vote, but Hilary did not win the election.

She was the one with all of the ties to Russia, from uranium sales to lots of sketchy contributions from various Russian sources.

Trump meanwhile has pretty much no connection to Russia apart from a fondness for ornate gold.