NYT: Coffee shops used for discreet lobbyist meetings

[CaféAuLait]

Coffee shops used for discreet lobbyist meetings

Meetings outside the White House avoid official visitor registration

WASHINGTON - There are no Secret Service agents posted next to the barista and no presidential seal on the ceiling, but the Caribou Coffee across the street from the White House has become a favorite meeting spot to conduct Obama administration business.

Here at the Caribou on Pennsylvania Avenue, and a few other nearby coffee shops, White House officials have met hundreds of times over the last 18 months with prominent K Street lobbyists — members of the same industry that President Obama has derided for what he calls its “outsized influence” in the capital...

But because the discussions are not taking place at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, they are not subject to disclosure on the visitors’ log that the White House releases as part of its pledge to be the “most transparent presidential administration in history.”

NYT: Discreet lobbyist meetings at coffee shops - The New York Times- msnbc.com



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