The Trump administration released the names of 22 Japanese officials on Friday after several watchdog groups requested visitor logs from President Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., resort.
One email from Feb. 10 listing the names of 22 names of Japanese officials from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s trip to Mar-a-Lago was released. Listed in the email are Abe’s national security adviser Shotaro Yachi, Ambassador of Japan Kenichiro Sasae, and other aides.
Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington, a D.C.-based ethics watchdog, as well as the National Security Archive and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University sued for the visitor logs in April.
After getting an extension to process the Mar-a-Lago visitor records, the government turned over these 22 names from the Japanese delegation pic.twitter.com/9ntKUtaVQT
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) September 15, 2017
The logs should have been released last Friday, but the government said it was unable to meet that deadline. CREW agreed to a one-week extension. After Friday’s release of just one record, the groups said it plans to sue for more.
Visitor logs for Mar-a-Lago, where Trump spent a number of weekends during the first few months of his presidency, have been a source of contention for months. When Abe visited the U.S. in February, a photo of him with Trump at dinner after a North Korean ballistic missile test raised national security concerns for the groups.
“The public deserves to know who is coming to meet with the president and his staff,” CREW executive director Noah Bookbinder said in a July statement. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security said it would turn over the visitor logs, which would then be posted publicly by CREW in September.
BREAKING: After an extension, at the last minute the government only turned over 22 names from Mar-a-Lago. We’ll be fighting this in court.
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) September 15, 2017
