According to an Associated Press analysis, the Obama Administration, led by a president who claimed in 2013 that it was “the most transparent administration in history,” spent a record amount of money to defend its refusal to release federal records under the Freedom of Information Act.

As CBS News reports, during the last year of Barack Obama’s tenure, his administration spent a record $36.2 million on legal costs, which broke the record it set the previous year. CBS News added, “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.”

In the last year of Obama’s tenure, 77% of requests for records were met with censored files or nothing, roughly the same as the prior year, a steep ascent from the 65% in Obama’s first year.

In over one-third of cases where the government refused access, it acknowledged that it had been wrong to do so.

$13 million was spent by the Obama Administration’s Justice Department on legal costs to fight transparency; the Homeland Security Department spent $6.3 million and the Pentagon spent $4.8 million. – READ MORE