nixon and the trouble he made for himself when he leaned on officials in his own justice department both to try to influence the course of the watergate investigation, but also specifically to get them to feed him information on the ongoing case. james baker, ex-fbi general counsel now providing an impressive history lesson on how one of the articles of impeachment against nixon was in part about him opening up a back channel of communication with a senior justice department official that was designed to inform him about the inner works of the watergate case. joining us now for the interview is james baker, former general counsel of the fbi and co-author with sarah grant of this fascinating spotlight on this part of history. mr. baker, it's really nice to have you here. i know you don't do things like this often if at all. so it's a real honor to have you on the program. >> thanks, rachel. first time ever. >> i promise it will not be too painful. >> okay. we'll see, we'll see. >> i want to talk about why you did this. you have written this piece. it has received a lot of attention, not only for the historical analogy that people