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Secret Service White House security review exempted from transparency law

A panel of outside experts brought in to review White House security in the wake of recent breaches will be exempted from a key federal transparency law, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson announced in a notice made public Tuesday.

Johnson said requiring the four-member commission to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act would slow down the panel's work and make it difficult to discuss the sensitive security details at issue in the review.

"Many of the issues to be reviewed by the Panel will require access to, and discussion of, non-public classified information and other non-public law enforcement sensitive information. These matters include protective measures at the White House, sensitive law enforcement techniques and methods, and the management of these protective and law enforcement missions of the Secret Service," Johnson said in a notice set for formal publication in Wednesday's Federal Register.

While FACA allows numerous exemptions, including the closure of meetings to discuss classified information or nearly any other subject protected by a Freedom of Information Act exemption, Johnson said it was impractical to apply FACA in this case.

"The FACA contains a number of exceptions to its general disclosure rules, but the applicability of those exceptions are not sufficient to address the proper handling of classified material and the protection of law enforcement sensitive information in this unique context," he wrote. "The information that will be discussed and reviewed by this panel will be deliberative in nature and will involve classified information that, if discussed in public, would result in the unauthorized disclosure of information that could reasonably be expected to result in threats or damage to national security."

Johnson said in the notice that "the department respects the principles of open government," but he determined that this panel should be permitted both to meet privately and to meet without public notice of its sessions. Compliance with the four-decade-old FACA law has been spotty during the Obama administration.

The members of the panel examining White House security include former Associate Attorney General Tom Perrelli, former Cabinet secretary Danielle Gray, Deputy Attorney General Mark Filip and Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Hagin.

Perrelli served in President Barack Obama's administration and that of President Bill Clinton. Gray was a top White House aide to Obama. Filip worked in President George W. Bush's administration, while Hagin worked in the White House for Bush, President George H.W. Bush and President Ronald Reagan.

Johnson has asked the panel to produce recommendations on White House security by Dec. 15.

Secret Service Director Julia Pierson resigned earlier this month after a series of security incidents, including cases of a fence-jumping intruder who made it well inside the White House and an elevator operator who was armed while on an elevator with Obama in Atlanta.

(h/t Tal Kopan)