--- title: White House Visitors Logs Decision Protested description: Transparency advocates are protesting the White House's decision against releasing visitor logs for the White House complex. canonical: https://time.com/4741065/white-house-visitor-logs-transparency-letter/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-14T20:24:05.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T12:03:42.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Transparency Groups Protest White House Visitor Log Reversal og:description: "Transparency is a core principle of American government." og:url: https://time.com/4741065/white-house-visitor-logs-transparency-letter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0db650a783fb4da3/6988c2e48fd2ee178e35697e/white-house-keep-visitor-logs-secret.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: White-House-Keep-Visitor-Logs-Secret og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Transparency Groups Protest White House Visitor Log Reversal twitter:description: "Transparency is a core principle of American government." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0db650a783fb4da3/6988c2e48fd2ee178e35697e/white-house-keep-visitor-logs-secret.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Transparency Groups Protest White House Visitor Log Reversal > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:03 PM UTCPublished: Apr 14, 2017 8:24 PM UTC  President Donald Trump waits in the doorway of the West Wing to greet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for a meeting at the White House, on March 20, 2017 in Washington. President Donald Trump waits in the doorway of the West Wing to greet Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for a meeting at the White House, on March 20, 2017 in Washington.Mark Wilson—Getty Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Updated: Jan 24, 2024 12:03 PM UTCPublished: Apr 14, 2017 8:24 PM UTC Transparency advocates are protesting the White House’s decision [against releasing visitor logs](http://time.com/4739815/white-house-will-keep-visitor-logs-secret/) for the White House complex. In a letter to White House Counsel Don McGahn, representatives from seven groups stated their opposition to the Trump Administration’s reversal of an [Obama-era policy](https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/briefing-room/disclosures/visitor-records) of releasing the names of most of those who enter the White House complex, calling it “deeply troubling” and calling for the decision to be reversed “immediately.” “Transparency is a core principle of American government,” the letter states. “As one of the first proponents of the Freedom of Information Act said over fifty years ago, “We must remove every barrier to information about – and understanding of – Government activities consistent with our security if the American public is to be adequately equipped to fulfill the ever more demanding role of responsible citizenship.” Or as Abraham Lincoln put it more succinctly, ‘Let the people know the facts, and the country will be safe.'” 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.” The signatories to the letter, which was drafted by the group [American Oversight](http://www.americanoversight.org)—founded last month by former Obama administration staffers and Democratic operatives,—include the [American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclu.org), [Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington](http://www.citizensforethics.org), [Every Voice](http://everyvoice.org), [Public Citizen](https://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183), the [Sunlight Foundation](https://sunlightfoundation.com) and [United to Protect Democracy](https://unitedtoprotectdemocracy.org). The full text of the letter is below: --- > “” --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4741065/white-house-visitor-logs-transparency-letter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4741065/white-house-visitor-logs-transparency-letter/"},"headline":"Transparency Groups Protest White House Visitor Log Reversal","datePublished":"2017-04-14T20:24:05.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T12:03:42.000Z","description":"\"Transparency is a core principle of American government\"","url":"https://time.com/4741065/white-house-visitor-logs-transparency-letter/","keywords":["White House","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0db650a783fb4da3/6988c2e48fd2ee178e35697e/white-house-keep-visitor-logs-secret.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt0db650a783fb4da3/6988c2e48fd2ee178e35697e/white-house-keep-visitor-logs-secret.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"White-House-Keep-Visitor-Logs-Secret","caption":"White-House-Keep-Visitor-Logs-Secret","creditText":"Mark Wilson—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4741065/white-house-visitor-logs-transparency-letter/","name":"Transparency Groups Protest White House Visitor Log Reversal"}}]}] ```