Reagan issues Executive Order 12667 governing access to presidential records

President Reagan signed Executive Order 12667 on January 18, 1989, establishing procedures for NARA and both incumbent and former presidents to assert executive privilege over presidential records under the Presidential Records Act. The order required NARA to give former presidents 30 days' notice before releasing records and directed the incumbent president to support former presidents' privilege claims unless affirmatively deciding otherwise. The order created the procedural framework that Bush's EO 13233 would later expand into indefinite veto power over record release.