RantCrush Top 5: July 18, 2017

A federal judge has ruled that President Trump has to release the visitor logs for his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, by September. The decision comes after government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, CREW, filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security in April under the Freedom of Information Act. The group said that the Secret Service, a branch of the DHS, keeps a log of all visitors to the president’s winter residence, but has refused to release them. “If the government refers to you as a presidential visitor to Mar-a-Lago, we are going to get and release that information,” spokesman Jordan Libowitz said. “We don’t know exactly what the logs are going to turn up.”

MAJOR CREW VICTORY: as part of our lawsuit, the gov’t has to turn over Mar-a-Lago visitor records by Sept. 8th. We’ll be making them public.

— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) July 17, 2017

Critics of Trump have said that paying the pricey club fee, which increased to $200,000 after Trump’s election, means that people who can pay up can gain access to the president’s ear. “The public deserves to know who is coming to meet with the president and his staff,” CREW Executive Director Noah Bookbinder said.

Emma Von Zeipel

Emma Von Zeipel is a staff writer at Law Street Media. She is originally from one of the islands of Stockholm, Sweden. After working for Democratic Voice of Burma in Thailand, she ended up in New York City. She has a BA in journalism from Stockholm University and is passionate about human rights, good books, horses, and European chocolate. Contact Emma at EVonZeipel@LawStreetMedia.com.