Leahy steps in: Senator wants to know why the White House changed its policy on visitor records

From the CREW:

The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has stepped in to the growing controversy over the effort by the White House to prevent access to the visitor logs. The Bush White House and the Secret Service changed the policy on visitor logs shortly after CREW filed a lawsuit requesting information about Jack Abramoff and his colleagues. Our law suit was filed on May 16th. The policy was changed on May 17th. What is the White House trying to hide?:

Sen. Patrick Leahy asked the Secret Service on Wednesday why the agency signed an agreement with the Bush administration to keep White House visitors logs secret.

In a letter to Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, Leahy said he was disappointed to hear about the agreement and sought an explanation "for this change in policy."
Signed last May 17 in the midst of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, the memorandum of understanding says the logs are "at all times presidential records; are not federal records; and are not the records of an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act."
Leahy, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, noted that White House visitor logs have been reviewed in the past and have played prominent roles in investigations of prior administrations.

"I have always respected the work of the Secret Service and viewed it as a nonpartisan law enforcement agency," the Vermont Democrat wrote.

http://blog.citizensforethics.org/node/493