EXCLUSIVE: New Guckert/Gannon FOIA Requests to DHS and Office of the President

By Todd Johnston
ePluribus Media

Also posted on DailyKos

ePluribus Media has learned that on Wednesday, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) sent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to the Department of Homeland Security and the Executive Office of the President, to further clarify the “unusual” White House access of James D. Guckert, aka “Jeff Gannon.”

Responding to Secret Service documents released in April, the latest DHS FOIA request asks among other things for “all policies and procedures that could have allowed Mr. Guckert to enter or leave the White House Complex without that activity being recorded by the Secret Service,” as reported by ePluribus Media, and that the ambiguous abbreviations and badge numbers in the “Access Control Records” from the first FOIA be defined.

The second FOIA, sent to the Executive Office of the President, seeks to obtain “all records pertaining to the times and dates Mr. Guckert was cleared by the U.S. Secret Service into the White House and at whose request.”

The distinction between a White House request for security clearance and Secret Service access control records is subtle but important. Access control records log only when and where Guckert entered the White House — at least some of the time — and are owned and archived by the Secret Service.

But these logs do not reveal how many times the White House submitted Guckert’s name for approval. Requests for “temporary appointments,” the type of pass Guckert received, are kept by the Secret Service for only 60 days. After that, they are the property of the White House.

It is clear from the first FOIA release, reported by ePluribus Media on Monday, that the difference between having a security clearance and using it can be quite large. From the Secret Service’s earliest remaining appointment request — on Dec. 20, 2004, until Jan. 26, 2005, when he asked “the question,” — the White House press office requested and received an appointment for Guckert every day.

During that span, Guckert shows up on the Secret Service access control logs only six times. If examined without context, these records give the impression that Guckert was one of the pack when clearly he was not.

Despite repeatedly parroting the Bush administration’s agenda as “news;” despite receiving a “stipend” from a dummy news agency co-founded by a “friend” of Karl Rove and the current Chairman of the Williamson County, Tex., Republican Party; despite being denied credentials as a journalist by a committee of journalists, Guckert had an open invitation to the briefing room as far back as the current records extend.

The new FOIA requests might further explain whether someone in the White House decided “Jeff Gannon” should receive a de facto permanent press pass — and if so, who exploited this loophole in the system.

On Monday, White House press secretary Scott McClellan spoke with reporters about a “certain journalistic standard that should be met,” having apparently repressed the names Armstrong Williams, Maggie Gallagher, and Michael McManus.

To some the story of James Guckert is a “non-story.” Others, however, see him as yet another conspicuous log in the eye of this administration.