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Born November 9th, 1918, Spiro T. Agnew was the 39th vice president of the United States, under the Richard Nixon Administration, and the first person to resign from so high an office position under duress, although only the second person to ever resign. In 1973, he was investigated for possible bribery, tax evasion, and extortion, among other things. This eventually led to his resignation in October 10th, 1973. At first, he fought all charges, saying as vice president he could not be indicted but instead must be impeached. However, with the context of the Watergate Scandal happening at the same time, and the imminent problem of Richard Nixon's own impeachment, Agnew's opposition knew they did not want him in place to take the presidency if Nixon was impeached. Through a deal with a federal judge and Agnew's lawyers, Agnew was made to resign the vice presidency. After resigning, he was fined $10,000 and given three years on unsupervised probation. All this brought a great deal more suspicion and controversy in the heat of Richard Nixon's Watergate Scandal.
2 comments:
Spiro Agnew's situation, similar to Nixon's situation, was nothing like the US presidency had ever seen before, but his was covered up by Nixon's situation. Legally does Agnew have to be impeached if he doesn't want to leave? Also, if Watergate wasn't going on at the same time would Agnew be removed?
Even though he was suspected of being involved in bribery, tax evasion and extortion, he was only fined with $10,000 which to him must be nothing. Did his position as the vice-president helped him escape the law?
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