The conservative government watchdog Judicial Watch was "wrongfully punished" by political operatives within the Obama administration, The Washington Times reports.

In addition, the operatives tried to force Judicial Watch to pay higher costs for its open records requests, The Times says, quoting a letter written by Carol Ochoa, inspector general of the General Services Administration.

In her letter, Ochoa said stripping Judicial Watch of media status violated several agency policies.

"It's outrageous but not surprising. Welcome to our world. This is what we put up with all the time from the agencies," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton told The Times.

He added: "Why are White House liaisons involved in our [Freedom of Information] request?"

Judicial Watch has been fighting to obtain more of Hillary Clinton's private-server emails and has other cases of Freedom of Information requests for the CIA, the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the IRS, The Times says.