It’s taken decades of work, but a former aide’s campaign to clear Richard Nixon’s name in the 1972 Watergate scandal has finally reached the Justice Department, with the aide seeking an investigation into allegations of prosecutorial misconduct and a “deep state” conspiracy to take Nixon down.

But first, he needs people to open up to the idea that the most scandalized president in modern history might not have done what he was accused of, leading him to resign in 1974 amid an impeachment threat.