g refusing to
             release the Reagan administration papers in January 2001, as stipulated in
             the Presidential Records Act." (Baker, 2003) The claim of the White House
             was that it had been concerned with the erosion of executive privilege in
             previous administrations. And it is true that presidents from Richard
             Nixon to Bill Clinton had not invoked executive privilege and had not kept
             as strict a code of confidentiality about all things governmental as George
             W. Bush is trying to do. For example, Richard M. Nixon, who had a
             reputation for secrecy, allowed his top aides to testify concerning
             Watergate; in that instance, Nixon was eventually found complicit. Nixon,
             for all the bad press he has received, was more forthcoming than the
             current Bush administration. His successor, Gerald Ford, "testified before
             Congress to explain his pardon of Nixon. And President Bill Clinton's
             National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger testified in 1997 before a
             House investigation of Clinton's 1996 campaign fund-raising." (Toedtman,
             2004) Under Jimmy Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski testified in a Senate
             Judiciary Committee hearing about the president's brother's lobbying
             efforts on behalf of Libya. (Feldmann and Marlantes, 2004)
             Perhaps the recent president least concerned with hiding behind the
             presidential equivalent of taking the fifth,' was Ronald Reagan. He
             waived executive privilege for his entire staff during the Iran-Contra
             affair. At that time, "Congress had created a special committee to
             investigate allegations that Reagan had authorized the sale of weapons to
             ...