Texas Republican turns up heat on Biden admin to turn over logs of president’s mystery visitors
Fox News
FIRST ON FOX: A Texas Republican lawmaker is turning up the heat on the Biden administration to turn over the logs of President Biden’s mystery Delaware visitors.
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, sent letters to both Biden and Secret Service deputy director Kimberly Cheatle, calling on the pair to release the visitor logs from the president’s Wilmington, Delaware home.
Biden saw a scandal earlier this year when classified documents from his time as vice president were discovered in his Delaware garage.
Gooden requested that Biden provide “information on and public access to” the logs after the documents’ discovery in January.
The Texas Republican also wrote that given “the vast amount of time” Biden spends at his Delaware home “and the significant allegations of unethical behavior and influence peddling against members of your immediate family, the American people deserve to know who is influencing this Administration.”
“The Biden Administration has continuously promised to bring transparency and truth back to the government, yet your failure to disclose this information sends the opposite message,” Gooden warned.
“I urge you to make good on this promise and release these visitor logs to the public,” he continued.
Gooden wrote that the “White House Visitor Log Policy provides the American people with an unprecedented look at who is lobbying your administration” and that “White House logs have revealed that your senior staff were meeting with special counsel Jack Smith’s top aide just days before charges were filed against former President Trump.”
The Texas congressman noted that Biden has spent roughly “two hundred days” of his presidency at his Wilmington property.
The “public deserves assurance that your administration is listening to the concerns of the American people and not acting in the best interest of lobbyists, friends, or donors,” he said.
“Unfortunately, your administration has previously made it apparent that no records of visitors to your Delaware residence exist,” Gooden wrote.
However, Gooden noted that classified documents were also located at Biden’s Wilmington home after going unnoticed for years.
“Continual denial of existing visitor logs represents a potential conflict of interest between you and the individuals you are hosting at your private residence,” Gooden continued.
Gooden said that Biden’s “decision to keep classified documents” at his Delaware home “may also be regarded as a national security risk,” adding that “classified documents in [Biden’s] garage and the Secret Service’s inability to confirm the existence of visitor logs is a potential national security breach of any information within these discovered documents.”
The Texas Republican asked Biden whether he would be “extending” the “basis for visitor disclosures” to other places the president regularly visits and whether “any non-U.S. citizens or foreign nationals visited President’s Delaware property.”
“If yes, did they have access to locations where classified documents were kept?” Gooden asked.
Gooden’s letter to Cheatle said the president’s “conduct of official business at his vacation property, which has a history of security failures, appears to be unprecedented in recent times.”
“While I appreciate that every President has the right to some privacy when not in the White House, this President has invited members of the public, who in many cases have paid significant amounts of money for access to him, to watch official business be conducted and has in some cases sought their advice during these breaks from Washington.”
Gooden asked Cheatle what “determination, if any, has been made to continue making White House visitor logs from the Workers and Visitors Entry System (WAVES) and the Access Control Records system (ACR) available to the public” and whether the systems are “being used for the President’s Delaware property.”
The congressman asked whether the Secret Service is “considering extending these systems, or any other security screenings” to other properties where Biden conducts official business.
Gooden also “once again” asked Cheatle turn over the Delaware visitor logs “and all communications or documents between the U.S. Secret Service and the Biden Administration regarding a decision to maintain visitor logs at the President’s Delaware property.”
Neither the White House nor the Secret Service immediately responded to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
In January, Gooden demanded the release of all visitor logs for President Biden’s residence in Delaware after the White House revealed that a batch of classified documents was discovered in the president’s garage.