unfortunately, elliott richardson used magic markers.ometimes, i guess he did not like his doodles and he would crumple them up and throw them in the wastebasket. as soon as the meeting was over, we would dive for the wastebasket to retrieve these doodles. 16 years before he died, he gave this interview. you have to listen closely as to what the accusation is. >> i didn't know what general haig meant when he said anything may be in the offing. all i knew was that each ride on five separate occasions in two months to force my resignation. >> there were men around richard nixon, either in the white house oriented official mechanism of the cia, who are capable of killing a vice president of the united states if they felt he was an embarrassment. >> i don't doubt that at all. brian: do you think he felt any threat of being killed by the cia? tim: what he felt was the threat of going to prison. he was terrified of going to prison. that was his whole impetus for exempting -- accepting some kind of a deal with us. brian: in the end, how much mo

we were really lucky we had elliott richardson. we had george bell.e had a bunch of revenue agents like marvin case and others. the whole team, we were very lucky in that all these wonderful people were in the right places. ron: chemistry was great and we were young but serious. the way the case involved -- the and our involvement, in addition to the pride that i have and i know tim and the others do in the job we did, in the terms of my development as a lawyer, it was an incredible experience. brian: who is the boss of george bell at the time? ron: the attorney general of the united states, elliott richardson. tim: there's a hierarchy. brian: what direct line does the president of the united states have two or u.s. attorney if they want to? can they fire him? tim: u.s. attorneys are presidential appointees. i suppose he could. he would direct the attorney general to fire him, windy? r -- wouldn't he? ron: our present president fired the u.s. attorney of new york. brian: there was a funeral for richard nixon. looking for the date. back in april 27, 19

was serving in the justice department and one of the closest advisors to the attorney general elliott richardsonnd the executive assistant. and j.t. smith was there, was there when richardson asked the head of the olc robert dixson to come up with an official justice department answer to the suddenly very pressing question about whether a sitting vice president could be indicted. and what j.t. smith told us in an interview for bagman is that robert dixson, that pressure packed fall of 1973, robert dixson really wasn't sure what the right answer was to that question. listen. >> he was asked by the attorney general as one should do to write an objective legal opinion on the amenability of the vice president to criminal process. >> right. >> and his office dug through 200 years of constitutional deliberations and opinions and ended up being in sort of a head scratching place where the opinion could come out either pro or con criminal process for the vice president and at that stage, one evening, i took a phone call from the late robert dickson who said do you have any idea how the attorney general

and, fortunately, elliott richardson was our attorney general, not somebody like john mitchell. and richardson not only protected us, but involved us and then -- and then performed so admirably as attorney general. elliott richardson sets the gold standard for what we should expect and require from an attorney general. and i'm disappointed that william barr does not seem to be willing to live up to that. he has declined to follow richardson's example and promised the senate judiciary committee and the american people that he will release the special counsel's report from robert mueller when it comes in. instead, he wants to look at it and edit it and that's just -- should be unacceptable. the senate should require him to release that report to the senate, to the congress and most of all to the american people. so that we will know what mueller found out. >> tim baker, i appreciate you coming on and talking us through that. >>> the democrats running for president are all playing nice now. could that change four months from now? we'll look ahead to the first debate four months from

that's a very serious failure to live up to the very high standard that elliott richardson created when that office. >> so since you blelieve, tim, e doesn't meet the richardson standard, what could be the consequences if barr does he become the next attorney general? >> well, his confirmation seems to be a done deal, but the senate could make it very clear to him that it expects and if necessary will require that robert mueller's final report be fully disclosed to the congress and even more importantly to the american people so that we know exactly what mueller found out. >> jonathan lemire. >> we know the president has said he views the attorney general as his own defender, his own personal lawyer rather than the top law enforcement officer for the nation. what have you seen from william barr? do you feel that bar shares that view? or are you assured what he'll do with the impending mueller report? >> the attorney general is not the personal attorney for the president, he is the attorney general of the united states and represents the people of the united states. i think it's too earl

this is a moment that calls for an elliott richardson. as the senator said in the judiciary committee today, mister barr's case for his own population seems to boil down to just one thought: just trust me. he does not recognize that this is not adequate for an attorney general in the trump administration. the moment cause for stronger more explicit assurances. that is independent of what each of us thinks of the personal characteristics of mister barr. the president has no regard for personal characteristics. this president never listens to an argument that he thinks is against his interest even if it is in accord with american tradition or american law. to simply say just trust me, that is not close to good enough. probably under any president but certainly under this when this is the case. in the coming months, i believe that our next attorney general will be faced with one or more real constitutional crisis. the attorney general will be important. if mister barr is confirmed, i hope you will be able to handle those challenges. he was n