For Immediate Release
Jul 7, 2006 Contact: Press Office
202-646-5188


U.S. Secret Service Forced to Release More White House Logs Detailing Abramoff Visits

(Washington, DC)  Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, announced today that the United States Secret Service has released to Judicial Watch new logs detailing additional visits of corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff to the White House.  The documents were released late Friday afternoon.  Judicial Watch had filed a “motion to compel” with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on May 17 after the Secret Service failed to comply with an April 25 court order to release all official logs detailing the Abramoff visits without redaction.  The new logs are available on Judicial Watch’s Internet site, www.judicialwatch.org.  (Pages 47 and 53 provide the clearest representation of the visits.)

The first set of documents released to Judicial Watch on May 10 indicated that Abramoff only made two visits to the White House on March 6, 2001 and January 20, 2004.  The new documents show an additional seven data entries concerning Abramoff appointments on the following dates:  March 1, 2001; March 6, 2001; April 20, 2001; May 9, 2001; May 17, 2001; December 7, 2001; and December 10, 2001.  According to the cover letter accompanying the documents, “The…data reflect appointments involving Jack Abramoff, but do not necessarily reflect actual visits to the White House Complex.”

On January 20, 2006, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the United States Secret Service seeking all White House visitor logs from January 1, 2001 reflecting the entry and exit of Abramoff from the White House:  “The public deserves to know the level of contact that Mr. Abramoff had with the White House, which would be accomplished by full disclosure of the dates and times that Abramoff entered and exited the White House for…policy related meetings,” Judicial Watch argued in its initial FOIA request.

While the Secret Service acknowledged receipt of Judicial Watch’s FOIA request on February 2, 2006, they failed to produce the records.  Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit on February 22, and on April 25, 2006, Judge Penn executed a joint stipulation and agreed order directing the Secret Service to produce the requested records by May 10, 2006.  The documents provided by the Secret Service were not official White House logs and contained incomplete information, prompting Judicial Watch to file its “motion to compel.”

“Obviously we wish the Secret Service had complied with the original court order, but we’re pleased to have forced the release of additional documents regarding Abramoff’s visits to the White House,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.  “The public has a right to know why an admitted felon had appointments with the Bush White House.”

Click here to view the Secret Service documents.

Click here for more information on Jack Abramoff.

Secret Service reveals more Abramoff visits

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Fri Jul 7, 10:42 PM ET

The Secret Service on Friday revealed four more visits to the White House in 2001 by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including one to see a domestic policy aide to Vice President Dick Cheney.

The newly released records of Abramoff's access to the White House bring the total number of his known visits to seven.

One Abramoff White House visit, according to Secret Service logs, was on April 20, 2001, to see Cesar Conda, at the time Cheney's assistant for domestic policy.

Five days after the Conda meeting, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, Patrick Pizzella, was nominated by the president as assistant secretary of labor. The Secret Service logs do not state why Abramoff met with Conda.

One log entry indicates Abramoff visited the White House residence on Dec. 10, 2001, for two hours, as part of a large holiday party.

The Secret Service entry for Abramoff's name that day reads, "POTUS," "WH," "RESIDENCE," and lists the number of people present as 326, according to the documents. POTUS refers to the president of the United States.

The Secret Service material surfaced as a result of lawsuits by the conservative organization Judicial Watch and the Democratic National Committee. An earlier Secret Service search turned up just two Abramoff White House visits, and a further search turned up the additional contacts.

Judicial Watch said the public has a right to know "why an admitted felon had appointments with the Bush White House." The DNC said it will aggressively pursue additional questions about visits to the White House by Abramoff and his lobbying associates.

The government is asking a judge to dismiss the lawsuits, but another group that is suing, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, says it will also seek more information on the visits.

Abramoff has pleaded guilty in an influence-peddling scandal and is cooperating with a wide-ranging Justice Department probe of alleged corruption on Capitol Hill and in the executive branch.

A former White House aide, David Safavian, was convicted in a trial last month for covering up his relationship with Abramoff. Safavian was the Bush administration's top procurement official until his arrest last year.

Abramoff's other previously undisclosed trips to the White House complex in 2001 were on March 1 and May 17. Both were to meetings in the Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House.

It has been previously known that Abramoff was in the White House on May 9, 2001, when President Bush had his photograph taken with an Indian tribal official who was an Abramoff client.

The Secret Service earlier disclosed White House visits by Abramoff on Jan. 20, 2004, the day Bush delivered his State of the Union address, and on March 6, 2001.