GOP senators join call for Secret Service to release Biden visitor logs

Sens. Ron Johnson and Charles E. Grassley on Tuesday became the latest Republican lawmakers to request the Secret Service turn over the visitor logs for President Biden’s home and former Washington office where stashes of classified documents have been found.

In a letter to Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, Mr. Johnson of Wisconsin and Mr. Grassley of Iowa said the records are necessary for their investigation into the discovery of classified material in those locations.

“After decades in Washington, Joe Biden certainly knows how classified information should be handled, but he arrogantly doesn’t believe the rules and laws apply to him. The public deserves a full accounting of individuals that may have had access to these classified records,” Mr. Johnson said in a statement.  

The senators requested Ms. Cheatle provide “a full and complete list” of all individuals who entered the locations where classified documents have been found.

The request comes one day after House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, demanded that the Secret Service turn over all documents, communications and visitor records from Mr. Biden’s home.

It is normal for retired vice presidents not to have Secret Service protection once they leave office. However, Mr. Biden had Secret Service protection as a presidential candidate and then as president, which would overlap some of the time the documents were stored at his residence.

Since taking office, Mr. Biden has made 52 trips totaling 164 days to his Wilmington home.

Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi last week said the agency doesn’t track who comes and goes from Mr. Biden’s home because it is a private residence.

Days later, Mr. Guglielmi reversed course and acknowledged that the Secret Service does have information about who has visited Mr. Biden’s Wilmington residence.

“The Secret Service does generate law enforcement and criminal justice information records for various individuals who may come into contact with Secret Service-protected sites,” he said in a statement.

The White House has released its visitor logs but not from Mr. Biden’s Wilmington home or his vacation house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Visitor logs for presidential residences are traditionally made public, though former President Donald Trump did not release records for the White House or his other residences.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request from The New York Post last fall, the Secret Service said at the time that the search for visitor logs “produced no responsive records.”