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OBAMA Spent $36 Million on LAWSUITS to Keep Information Secret
Posted by:
Jennifer
()
Date: September 13, 2018 03:01AM Can you say "Hypocrites"
But, but, but "You're Racist!" If you criticize Obama on LAWSUITS, yet Trump is fair game...Hypocrites! Can you imagine if Trump did this ... Hypocritical Libs! Obama Spent $36 Million on LAWSUITS to Keep Information Secret [www.cbsnews.com] Last Updated Mar 14, 2017 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. For a second consecutive year, the Obama administration set a record for times federal employees told citizens, journalists and others that despite searching they couldn’t find a single page of files that were requested. 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. 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. Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/13/2018 03:13AM by Jennifer. Re: Obama Spent $36 Million on Lawsuits to Keep Information Secret
Posted by:
Jennifer
()
Date: September 13, 2018 03:04AM And yeah - there's tons of dirt on Obama, so whatever is thrown at me about the Republicans/Trump, don't worry, I'll find plenty of crap on Obama and the Libs. Re: OBAMA Spent $36 Million on LAWSUITS to Keep Information Secret
Posted by:
suncloud
()
Date: September 16, 2018 08:58AM Sorry. Nothing will make Trump look good, but go ahead and waste your time if you like.
Really though Jennifer, do you think anything is being thrown at you? About Republicans or anything else? It's not your fault. Maybe you voted for that big fat orange loony hamburger hog, but everyone makes mistakes. Have you considered that maybe you're digging in a little too hard to hold your ground for such a cheating con-artist fiend? The man lies like a rug. I'm sure you have to know that by now. Well who can really blame you if you did vote for such a total ignorant greedy-gut buffoon, when the choice was between him and the other candidate? Jeez, I sure hope someone better comes along. Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2018 09:07AM by suncloud. Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
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