美国国家公共电台 NPR As Trump Continues Mar-A-Lago Trips, Watchdogs Want To Know Who's Joining Him

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For the seventh time since taking office, President Trump 1 will spend this weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla. Government watchdog groups want a federal court to force the Trump administration to release a list of visitors to that resort as well as to the White House and Trump Tower. NPR's Greg Allen reports.

GREG ALLEN, BYLINE 2: Trump likes to call it the Winter White House. Although of the Trump Organization owns it, Mar-a-Lago is a private club with about 500 dues-paying members. Over the last few months, in addition to beach and tennis privileges, members have had a front-row seat to important presidential deliberations.

Trump says he ordered last week's missile strike on Syria while having dinner with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago. The Palm Beach Daily News reports other guests were nearby, including Boston Celtics great John Havlicek, who was celebrating his birthday with friends. Two nights later, Trump was chatting with club members and guests, including billionaire and political activist 3 David Koch, who was there with his brother, Bill.

The head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics 4 in Washington, Noah Bookbinder, says although it's a private club, Americans have a right to know who's visiting Mar-a-Lago while the president is there.

NOAH BOOKBINDER: If anything, it's more important to know who's there because you don't have the usual protections and procedures that you have with the White House.

ALLEN: During the Obama administration, the White House posted online logs of the people who visited the White House, a practice that began after a series of lawsuits 5 filed by CREW. So far, the Trump administration hasn't made any White House visitor logs available. CREW and other groups have filed Freedom of Information requests for the visitor logs since Trump took office. This week, they took their requests to federal court in New York and extended it to include visitor logs for Mar-a-Lago and Trump's Manhattan residence, Trump Tower.

JONATHAN WACKROW: They're asking for something that does not exist.

ALLEN: Jonathan Wackrow is a former Secret Service official. He says the visitor logs for the White House are part of a complex system that includes background checks and personal data. That kind of information, he says, isn't gathered at other places the president stays, like Mar-a-Lago.

WACKROW: It's a private facility. It's a temporary location where the president goes to, so even the security posture 6 there is set up on an ad hoc basis based upon presidential travel.

ALLEN: Wackrow says the Secret Service screens for weapons and other direct threats to the president but otherwise is not involved in admitting guests at Mar-a-Lago. Bookbinder with CREW says given Trump's ongoing 7 use of Mar-a-Lago and the important meetings taking place there, the administration needs to begin maintaining and releasing visitor logs.

BOOKBINDER: It needs to be treated essentially 8 the same way that the White House treats its records. And so if it's not already happening, they need to very quickly come up with a policy to make sure that it does start happening.

ALLEN: Wackrow says maintaining the visitor access system at the White House costs the Secret Service millions of dollars each year and is not easily replicated 9 at Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower or other places the president stays. Greg Allen, NPR News, Miami.

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