Donald Trump's administration is being sued for withholding the logs that show who is visiting the president, The Hill reports.
The National Security Archive, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have all filed suit demanding release of the logs.
"We hoped that the Trump administration would follow the precedent of the Obama administration and continue to release visitor logs, but unfortunately they have not." CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said.
"Given the many issues we have already seen in this White House with conflicts of interest, outside influence, and potential ethics violations, transparency is more important than ever, so we had no choice but to sue."
The three groups maintain the Secret Service is violating the law by not responding to Freedom of Information requests for details on those visiting Trump at the White House, in Florida and New York, Politico reported.
"It is crucial to understand who is potentially influencing the decision-making of the president, particularly when you have a White House that tends to lean toward secret decision-making," said Bookbinder.
The Obama administration had initially balked at releasing visitors' name. But nearly 6 million names of White House visitors were eventually made public, The Washington Post noted.