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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe shadow of Agnew
By Jeffrey Frank
4:15 P.M.
... Spiro Agnew, elected in 1968 as Richard Nixons Vice-President, was under investigation for tax evasion, bribery, and various corrupt practices, most dating back to 1967, when Agnew became the governor of Maryland. Agnews first reaction was a relatively restrained statement: I am under investigation for possible violations of the criminal statutes, he said, adding, I am innocent of any wrongdoing.
Then, at a press conference a day later, Agnew called the allegations damned lies, as well as false and scurrilous and malicious; he certainly wasnt going to resign. A few days after that, he said, I will fight, I will fight to prove my innocence, and over the next sixty-five days he never stopped attacking leaks and fighting what he called smear publicity ...
A Trump lawyer .. told Bloomberg .. that Trumps businesses lie beyond the bounds of Muellers mandate, but Muellers mandate is Russian collusion, and Trumps companies have had ties to Russia for at least thirty years. While Trump has made a number of untrue statements on that subject .. Glenn Kessler, recounting that history, reminded readers that, in 2008, Donald Trump, Jr., said that Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross-section of a lot of our assets ...
On September 29, 1973, Agnew flew to Los Angeles, where he played golf with Frank Sinatra, and gave a speech to a cheering crowda sort of West Virginia moment. He didnt use the term witch hunt but he complained about malicious leaks and perjured testimony, and said that the Justice Department was trying to frame him. I will not resign if indicted, he saidtwiceto loud applause. Eleven days later, Agnew pleaded no contest to tax evasion, saying that he did so to avoid a long, divisive, and debilitating struggle in the Congress and the courts. In a plea deal worked out with the Attorney General, Elliot Richardson, Agnew resigned the Vice-Presidency; in return, all other charges were dropped, he was fined ten thousand dollars, he was given three years of probationand he avoided jail. As for a successor, Nixon chose the popular House Minority Leader, Gerald Ford, of Michigan, described by the Journal as pleasant but plodding party wheelhorse who often speaks and apparently thinks in clichésin other words, not anyones first choice as a potential President. The Watergate scandal, meanwhile, continued for ten more months, ending with Nixons resignation, under threat of impeachment, on August 9, 1974forty-three years ago this weeka narrative thats become the template for removing Presidents who behave badly. In the age of Trump, the Agnew case, with its history of lies, greed, kickbacks, and the self-regard of its central actor, might seem the better predictor of what could come next. But then, as now, the constitutional question of whether a President, or a Vice-President, can be indicted was asked; it has never been answered.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-falls-under-the-shadow-of-spiro-agnew