The Obama administration hides their meetings with lobbyists by holding meetings outside of the White House – and off of Secret Service logs, which are eventually open to public view. The meetings are hidden and secret.
Obama's Long Shadow over the Oval Office
“They’re doing it on the side. It’s better than nothing,” said immigration reform lobbyist Tamar Jacoby, who has attended meetings at the nearby Jackson Place complex and believes the undisclosed gatherings are better than none.
The White House scoffs at the notion of an ulterior motive for scheduling meetings in what are, after all, meeting rooms. But at least four lobbyists who’ve been to the conference rooms just off Lafayette Square tell POLITICO they had the distinct impression they were being shunted off to Jackson Place — and off the books — so their visits wouldn’t later be made public…
There are no records of meetings at the row houses just off Lafayette Square that house the White House Conference Center and the Council on Environmental Quality, home to two of the busiest meeting spaces. The White House can’t say who attended meetings there, or how often. The Secret Service doesn’t log in visitors or require a background check the way it does at the main gates of the White House. Source: Politico
Last year we learned that then-SEIU president Andy Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House, and conveniently, he failed to register as a lobbyist. Once an FBI probe was focused on Stern, he resigned his SEIU presidency. Obama then appointed Stern to the Debt commission which gave Stern another revolving door in and out of the Oval Office. Michelle Malkin (Obama lied, transparency died, Part 989) is a must read on this story.
Memorandum has linked – thank you – and has a conversation underway. Read it here.
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[...] practice to not register as a lobbyist, even though you are one. With unenforced federal law, SEIU president Andy Stern was the most frequent visitor to the White House in 2010. He did not regis… If you are a registered lobbyist, you can donate the max through your spouse. This is an enormous [...]