WASHINGTON -- The Obama
administration in its final year in office spent a record $36.2 million
on legal costs defending its refusal to turn over federal records under
the Freedom of Information Act, according to an Associated Press
analysis of new U.S. data that also showed poor performance in other
categories measuring transparency in government.
And
it set records for outright denial of access to files, refusing to
quickly consider requests described as especially newsworthy, and
forcing people to pay for records who had asked the government to waive
search and copy fees.
The
government acknowledged when challenged that it had been wrong to
initially refuse to turn over all or parts of records in more than
one-third of such cases, the highest rate in at least six years.
In
courtrooms, the number of lawsuits filed by news organizations under the
Freedom of Information Act surged during the past four years, led by the
New York Times, Center for Public Integrity and The Associated Press,
according to a litigation study by the Transactional Records Access
Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. The AP on Monday settled its 2015
lawsuit against the State Department for files about Hillary Clinton’s
time as secretary of state, at AP’s request, and received $150,546 from
the department to cover part of its legal fees.
The
AP has pending lawsuits against the FBI for records about its decision
to impersonate an AP journalist during a criminal investigation and
about who helped the FBI hack into a mass shooting suspect’s iPhone and
how much the government paid to do it.
Of
the $36.2 million in legal costs fighting such lawsuits last year, the
Justice Department accounted for $12 million, the Homeland Security
Department for $6.3 million and the Pentagon for $4.8 million. The three
departments accounted for more than half the government’s total records
requests last year.
The
figures reflect the final struggles of the Obama administration during
the 2016 election to meet President Barack Obama’s pledge that it was
“the most transparent administration in history,” despite wide
recognition of serious problems coping with requests under the
information law. It received a record 788,769 requests for files last
year and spent a record $478 million answering them and employed 4,263
full-time FOIA employees across more than 100 federal departments and
agencies. That was higher by 142 such employees the previous year.
A
spokesman for former President Obama did not immediately respond to an
email request for comment late Monday. The White House under Obama
routinely defended its efforts under the information law in recent years
and said federal employees worked diligently on such requests for
records.
It
remains unclear how President Donald Trump’s administration will perform
under the Freedom of Information Act or other measures of government
transparency. Trump has not spoken extensively about transparency. In
his private business and his presidential campaign, Trump required
employees and advisers to sign non-disclosure agreements that barred
them from discussing their work. His administration has barred some
mainstream news organizations from campaign rallies and one White House
press briefing. And Trump broke with tradition by refusing to disclose
his tax returns.
Trump’s
secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is traveling to Asia this week on a
small plane without a contingent of journalists or a designated pool
reporter who would send reports to the broader diplomatic press corps,
departing from 50 years of practice.
Overall,
in the final year of Obama’s administration, people who asked for
records last year under the law received censored files or nothing in 77
percent of requests, about the same as the previous year. In the first
full year after Obama’s election, that figure was only 65 percent of
cases. The government released the new figures in the days ahead of
Sunshine Week, which ends Sunday, when news organizations promote open
government and freedom of information.
Under
the records law, citizens and foreigners can compel the U.S. government
to turn over copies of federal records for zero or little cost. Anyone
who seeks information through the law is generally supposed to get it
unless disclosure would hurt national security, violate personal privacy
or expose business secrets or confidential decision-making in certain
areas.