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.
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