Dan Abrams, whose new book out Today, John Adams under Fire, takes us inside a riveting revolutionary era murder trial.

The founding father risking it all to defend the British soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre.

This is not the history that you were taught in school.

So nice to have you here, Dan.

Great to be here.

This'll picture because familiar something you've probably seen in your history book at school.

It was originally printed by Paul Revere.

But you say this is not an accurate depiction of what happened.

This is what people think of when they think of the Boston Massacre because this was distributed everywhere at the time, and it is wildly inaccurate as to what happened.

You see there, this line supposedly of British soldiers just firing at the colonists.

That's not what happened.

It was a very complicated, nuanced event where there were colonists may be hundreds of them gathering, throwing snowballs and rocks at the soldiers.

And the question is, when did they fire and why did they fire?

And that ultimately became the subject of this trial, which is where we start with the book and we've got a 217 page transcript from 17 70 of the actual trial.

And this was a risky case for John Adams to take on.

He was 34 years old.

He was not a supporter of the British.

Correct?

No, he was a patriot.

He was a He was a colonist.

Why did he do it?

He did it because he believed in the rule of law.

He believed that the British soldiers deserve the defense, and he suffered for it.

Lost half his law business.

People threw rocks through his window at his home, but he believed a that they had a serious defense.

And again, that's not what happened.

What's in the picture and B that they also have a fair trial.

Um, and John Adams is the one who coined the phrase.

Facts are stubborn things, and it's there from that trial that we got that phrase and that was Adam's in defending these British soldiers in this murder case, something else we saw were these iconic wigs that John Adams wore these lawyers wigs.

Why did they wear them well to recent first of all, formality?

It added a level of formality to the courtroom, and secondly, and maybe interestingly, anonymity, meaning they wanted people to focus on the rule of law and not the individuals in the court.

So everyone dressed the same, the point being so that their appearance wouldn't matter and that so the jurors could focus on the rule of law and nothing else.

Interesting.

Also, something that's significant is this picture behind you.

This is Abigail Adams, and a lot of people might not realize the relationship John had with his wife, Abby Gail, and fact that she was one of his closest advisers.

She was one of the most important women in early colonial history.

She wasn't just his wife.

In today's day and age, she would have been a political candidate herself.

She was smart, She was outspoken, and John Adams wouldn't do much without her guidance and her advice.

Love that.

Dan Abrams.

Thank you so much.

Fire is available today.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

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