However, the talks proved fruitless and Nathan, the House counsel, characterized the negotiations as "completely useless."
"We have not found willing partners on the other side of the table," Nathan said in federal court hearing last year. "We're being dunced around here."
U.S. District Judge John Bates, a Bush appointee, agreed that the White House was not negotiating in good faith and was simply trying to run out the clock.
“Had the litigants indicated that a negotiated solution was foreseeable in the near future, the Court may have stayed its hand in the hope that further intervention in this dispute by the Article III branch [the Judiciary] would not be necessary,” Bates wrote.
Under a Democratic administration, negotiations may end up being more acceptable to Democrats in Congress. But thus far, Conyers does not appear to be satisfied with the direction of the negotiations – and Obama could come under criticism for supporting continued Bush secrecy.
During Campaign 2008, Obama said Bush was overreaching with his claims of executive privilege. Then, on his first full day in office, Obama signed an executive order reining in the power of former presidents to keep their historical records secret.
Obama directed the National Archives and Records Administration to consult with the Justice Department and White House counsel "concerning the Archivist's determination as to whether to honor the former President's claim of privilege or instead to disclose the presidential records notwithstanding the claim of privilege."
Now, however, Obama’s Justice Department is pushing Congress to reach some accommodation with the Bush administration’s executive privilege claims.
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