ABC’s Karl: Does State Dept 450-Day FOIA Avg Meet Obama Transparency Standard?

Wednesday at the White House press briefing, ABC News chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl grilled a visibly annoyed press secretary Josh Earnest over the Obama administration’s State Department taking an average of 450 days to fulfill Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.

Earnest refused to answer if the 450 day standard lives up to President Barack Obama’s multiple claims that he is running the most transparent administration in history.

Karl pointed out that is 30 times longer than the Treasury Department takes, and seven times longer than the CIA takes on FOIA requests.

Earnest repeatedly told Karl to address this with the State Department, over Karl’s objection that the question is whether the 450 days meets the president’s standard.

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