Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor whom Attorney General Elliot Richardson had appointed in May to investigate Watergate, wanted access to the tapes. Before trying to fire Cox, Nixon and Mississippi Sen. John Stennis tried to work out a potential deal with the Justice Department. At that point, with Nixon pressing him to fire Cox, Richardson found himself in an extremely difficult position. The next person that Nixon ordered to fire Cox, Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus, followed Richardson’s precedent. President Jimmy Carter’s attorney general, Griffin Bell, changed the norms of communication and transparency to buttress their insulation from the Oval Office.