<\/p>\n
A secret murder plot directed by the President? A fear of political assassination by the CIA. Facing the prospect of becoming the first Vice President in American history to resign in disgrace\u2026 Spiro T. Agnew tries to set the stage for his own exit from office. With wild claims of death threats that forced him out. Surprise revelations of what Agnew was doing with all of his money. And a suspense-filled final day that leaves the sitting Vice President\u2026 a convicted felon.<\/em><\/p>\n For a list of sources and references for this episode, see here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n MADDOW: What you\u2019re about to hear, I think, is one of the most surreal clips I\u2019ve maybe ever heard when it comes to American politics.<\/p>\n This is a TV interview with a Vice President. And what he\u2019s about to allege here is that the President of the United States who he served with\u2026 was threatening to have him murdered.<\/p>\n This is not an outtake from some over-acted political thriller. This is a real interview that really happened.And the Vice President here, of course, is Spiro Agnew.<\/p>\n REPORTER: Agnew says he left because of a death threat from the White House. He quotes Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig urging him to resign with the words, \u201cThe President has a lot of power, don\u2019t forget that.\u201d Agnew writes that the remark sent a chill through his body. He took it as an innuendo that anything could happen, he might have\u2013 in Agnew\u2019s words\u2013 \u201ca convenient accident.\u201d An interpretation that even today, he refuses to disown.<\/p>\n SPIRO AGNEW: I didn\u2019t know what General Haig meant when he said \u201canything may be offing, things may get nasty and dirty.\u201d \u2026 There\u2019s no doubt in my mind that these things are possible. I don\u2019t say it was a probability, but I do say it was a possibility.<\/p>\n REPORTER: You think then that there were men around Richard Nixon\u2013 either in the White House staff or in the official mechanism of the CIA\u2013 who were capable of killing a Vice President of the United States if they felt he was an embarrassment?<\/p>\n AGNEW: I don\u2019t doubt that at all.Spiro Agnew didn\u2019t just make that allegation that one time.<\/p>\n He made it repeatedly. He wrote about it in a book, he went on-the-record in a series of interviews stating that he believed President Richard Nixon might have him killed.<\/p>\n MEET THE PRESS MODERATOR: You say that you were fearful that if you did not go along, President Nixon or General Haig \u2014 it\u2019s not quite clear\u2013 might have ordered you assassinated, could you explain that?<\/p>\n AGNEW: I was concerned and I think my concern at that time, based on my frame of mind after being seven months in a pressure cooker of attempts to get me to resign office \u2026 gave me reason to be concerned. I brought along with me this testimony from the Select Committee on the Government Operations Committee involving intelligence activities\u2026<\/p>\n What Spiro Agnew pulls out at this point is a copy of a U.S. government report about the CIA\u2019s efforts to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.He says what that report shows is that even though the CIA was never given a direct order from the President to kill Castro, they knew they were authorized to do it.<\/p>\n He\u2019s making the point that even if Nixon never gave a direct order to to kill him\u2013 to kill his Vice President\u2013 it\u2019s conceivable the CIA would take its cues from Nixon and act anyway\u2026<\/p>\n AGNEW: It is possible for these things to happen. I\u2019ve never said it was a probability that my life was in danger, I said it was one of the factors that crossed my mind and it was the straw that broke the camel\u2019s back after all the pressures that had been put on me.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew was alleging on national television that as a sitting Vice President, he was possibly the target of a contract killing by the President.<\/p>\n He said he even bought a gun at the time for his own protection.<\/p>\n NICK THIMMESCH (REPORTER, LOS ANGELES TIMES): You acknowledge that you had fear at this time, but after you left office, did you ever go to the federal government to get a permit for a handgun?<\/p>\n AGNEW: Yes.<\/p>\n THIMMESCH: Why did you get that handgun, and what period was this?<\/p>\n AGNEW: I think it was immediately after I left office, I got it because I still had some fears.<\/p>\n THIMMESCH: Do you still have a handgun?<\/p>\n AGNEW: No, I\u2019ve never carried the handgun, I thought it was sufficient that people would know I had the permit to carry one.<\/p>\n This is the story that Spiro Agnew wanted people to believe about the circumstances in which he left office. That he was another one of Richard Nixon\u2019s victims.<\/p>\n Agnew\u2019s tale of woe was that Nixon\u2019s inner circle\u2013 specifically Nixon\u2019s chief-of-staff Al Haig\u2013 pressured him for weeks to resign and when he refused to do it\u2026 they threatened his life. And thereby forced him out when he otherwise wouldn\u2019t have left. Okay, maybe. Seems nuts, but maybe!<\/p>\n That said, there is another explanation for why Spiro Agnew stepped down when he did. And it does involve a three-letter federal agency, but not the CIA.<\/p>\n It involves special agents from the IRS who had been quietly and very diligently going through Vice President Agnew\u2019s past.<\/p>\n Those agents and the Baltimore federal prosecutors working with them had already turned up the smoking-gun evidence of the bribery and extortion scheme that Agnew had been running in Maryland and in the White House. But they also started turning up something else: details about what exactly Spiro Agnew seemed to be doing with all that money he was making as a criminal.<\/p>\n And that part of the investigation got into areas of Agnew\u2019s personal life that were maybe becoming a little uncomfortable for him:<\/p>\n RON LIEBMAN (FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR): There were some personal expenses in there that, pre-Monica Lewinsky and pre all that we\u2019ve come across and some stories that we came across which\u2013 unlike Ken Starr, I guess\u2013 we just said \u201cthis is, this is not a part of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Ron Liebman and his fellow Baltimore prosecutors had stumbled upon an aspect of Agnew\u2019s life-and-crimes that may have hit a nerve for the Vice President:<\/p>\n LIEBMAN: You know, these guys they have all these personal peccadillos, you know, they have money and power and they do stupid things. And we came across financial evidence of that and we heard some stories about that. One of them quite bizarre, but we, that wasn\u2019t part of the case.<\/p>\n The Baltimore prosecutors never actually used the information they would start to uncover about Agnew\u2019s personal life, but Spiro Agnew was aware that the IRS was digging into it and what it involved was evidence of what seemed like a secret life\u2026 mistresses, sports cars, expensive gifts that never seemed to make it to Agnew\u2019s wife Judy. Here\u2019s prosecutor Tim Baker:<\/p>\n TIM BAKER (FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR): There was jewelry, too.<\/p>\n MIKE YARVITZ (PRODUCER): Jewelry to Agnew?<\/p>\n BAKER: A woman\u2019s watch. Which Judy never got.<\/p>\n YARVITZ: What does that suggest?<\/p>\n BAKER: Uhh.<\/p>\n Death threats and handguns and CIA assassination plots sounded like a really cool reason to have to step down. But that probably wasn\u2019t the reason he had to step down.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew had carefully crafted this straight arrow, moralistic, hard line public image as a man of honesty and virtue and conservative integrity. He knew that if he continued to fight, all of that would come crashing down around him. It was finally time to cut his losses and go away.<\/p>\n You\u2019re listening to \u201cBag Man.\u201d I\u2019m your host Rachel Maddow.<\/p>\n *************<\/p>\n Episode 6: \u201cA Disappearing Act\u201d<\/p>\n NBC NEWS ANNOUNCER: \u201cThe Tonight Show\u201d will not be seen tonight so that we may bring you the following NBC News Special Report.<\/p>\n JOHN CHANCELLOR: Good evening. The country tonight is in the midst of what may be the most serious Constitutional crisis in its history\u2026<\/p>\n The Saturday Night Massacre took place on October 20th, 1973.<\/p>\n It was Richard Nixon, in a fit of rage, trying to end the investigation into Watergate that his own Justice Department was conducting.<\/p>\n Nixon ordered his Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire the Special Prosecutor who was leading that investigation. And when Richardson refused to do that and resigned himself instead, that sparked a true-blue constitutional crisis:<\/p>\n CHANCELLOR: Agents of the FBI\u2013 acting at the direction of the White House\u2013 sealed off the offices of the Special Prosecutor, the offices of the Attorney General, and the offices of the Deputy Attorney General. That\u2019s a stunning development. And nothing even remotely like it has happened in all of our history.<\/p>\n The Saturday Night Massacre is this signal moment in U.S. history. But many of the people who lived that history, are still around to tell it. JT Smith was Elliot Richardson\u2019s top assistant at the Justice Department that day:<\/p>\n JT SMITH (EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ELLIOT RICHARDSON): I don\u2019t want to sound like a pretentious 29-year-old, but I was sorely vexed by events. And I had a lot of yellow, legal pad notes that bore upon the stuff we\u2019ve been talking about. I took my notes, put them in my briefcase, and walked out without being searched by the FBI. And I took them home and I was sufficiently paranoid about the direction of the country, I hid them in the attic of my house.<\/p>\n What\u2019s sort of incredible to realize with hindsight and what\u2019s never mentioned in the history books about that moment is that Elliot Richardson and his team\u2013 when the Saturday Night Massacre happened\u2013 they were just coming off what may have been one of the most dramatic moments in the history of the U.S. Justice Department.<\/p>\n The Saturday Night Massacre happened on October 20th, 1973.<\/p>\n Just 10 days before that\u2013 on October 10th\u2013 Attorney General Elliot Richardson had single-handedly forced the resignation of the Vice President of the United States. It was October 9th when Elliot Richardson cut a high-stakes plea deal with Vice President Agnew\u2019s lawyers that would would keep Agnew out of jail, but in exchange, he would offer his immediate resignation from office. Agnew\u2019s attorney Marty London helped reach that deal:<\/p>\n MARTIN LONDON (VICE PRESIDENT SPIRO AGNEW\u2019S DEFENSE ATTORNEY): I thought Elliot Richardson, in the end, made a deal because he saw this as a potential Constitutional crisis and a national disaster.<\/p>\n The deal was made \u2013 as controversial as it was \u2013 it was made. But what happened to Spiro Agnew in the last 24 hours of his Vice Presidency, it was this all-night, sirens wailing, down to the last minute, surprise sweat fest like you can\u2019t believe.<\/p>\n In all of U.S. history, a Vice President had never before been forced to resign. And, at that moment, it wasn\u2019t really clear how to do it. Logistically, even.<\/p>\n They had to dig through the archives to figure out the logistics. To figure out that the way a Vice President technically resigns\u2013 the instrument of resignation\u2013 turns out, it\u2019s through a letter submitted to the Secretary of State? Okay, so he\u2019ll resign to the Secretary of State!<\/p>\n After figuring that out and finalizing the deal and setting a court date for the very next day, October 10th, Marty London and the rest of Agnew\u2019s defense team rushed back to the Vice President\u2019s office to draft that resignation letter. Again, there was no precedent for what that should look like. What should the letter say?<\/p>\n LONDON: Nobody had written, thought about preparing for this (laughs), we\u2019ve got two hours to get out a resignation letter! I don\u2019t know how so many people got in that room, he had, the Vice President had some guy who was like counselor to the Vice President, another guy was there, another guy was there, Frank Sinatra had sent a lawyer! And now people are writing fantastic, long explanations. One guy said, \u201cI\u2019m resigning because the President is pushing me out, and outrageous\u2026\u201d, another guy writes a letter, \u201cI\u2019m resigning because of the press wanted me gone\u2026\u201d, and the other guy said, \u201cThe Department of Justice wanted me gone\u2026\u201d, another guy said, \u201cIt\u2019s the fucking Democrats, they want me gone\u2026\u201d, you know it\u2019s everything and we\u2019re going nowhere, it\u2019s an hour and a half later, the clock is ticking, the temperature in the room is 85 degrees, I said, \u201cI got it guys, I got it guys\u201d and\u2013 I\u2019ll pat myself on the back here\u2013 I got it. And so, \u201cOh yeah, what\u2019s your letter?\u201d I say, \u201cI hereby resign as Vice President of the United States. Respectfully.\u201d Everybody says, \u201cWell geez, that\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n That chaotic scene in the Vice President\u2019s office though, that was nothing compared to what was happening back in Baltimore that night at the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n The plea deal that had been reached with Agnew allowed the prosecutors to submit a detailed statement of evidence into the record laying out what crimes exactly Spiro Agnew had committed. The payoffs as Governor, the payoffs as Vice President, everything the prosecutors had.<\/p>\n What the prosecutors would ultimately draft was a 40-page long statement of evidence laying out Agnew\u2019s alleged crimes. But the night before the court date, it wasn\u2019t done yet.<\/p>\n And these three Baltimore prosecutors, they stayed up all night that night trying to get it finished in time:<\/p>\n BARNEY SKOLNIK (FMR. FEDERAL PROSECUTOR): It was all written the night before we went to court. I mean, it was like this all-nighter thing, like it was being back in college. We were exchanging drafts, I think maybe Timmy wrote, you know, these parts, and I wrote some parts, and Ron wrote some parts.<\/p>\n BAKER: We just started dictating and drafts would go, pages would go. It wasn\u2019t like complete drafts, sections would go back and forth, back and forth, marked up, retyped, marked up, retyped, and we were on a deadline.<\/p>\n LIEBMAN: At like 1 or 2 in the morning, the Attorney General of the United States and Henry Petersen, I think, drive to Baltimore in the middle of the night, early in the morning and sit in George Beall\u2019s office as we start feeding him these papers, which was extraordinary. This is the Attorney General of the United States at two in the morning in Baltimore? You know, on my best days, I wouldn\u2019t want to be in Baltimore at two in the morning!<\/p>\n BAKER: And I think at like 6:00 AM, it\u2019s given to the US Marshals who then, we were later told, at points on the Baltimore-Washington expressway were doing in excess of 85 miles an hour and then it had to be to Agnew\u2019s lawyers by something like 8:00 AM in Washington, it was some terrible hour, and they got it there just in time.<\/p>\n They got it there\u2026 in fact\u2026five minutes late.<\/p>\n This 40-page statement of evidence that was thrown together all night over-night, it was rushed to DC with a sirens wailing police escort like it was the holy grail.<\/p>\n For these prosecutors, it kind of was.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew was about to walk into court and plead to a felony count of tax evasion, and these prosecutors wanted the American people to know that he had not-only been caught for tax evasion.<\/p>\n BAKER: We knew what it had to do. It had to bury him, so that the country could see this wasn\u2019t a \u201cwitch hunt\u201d\u2013 to use a current expression\u2013 that there was a very substantial, solid case against him.<\/p>\n LIEBMAN: It was a big issue for all of us, all of us. Because what we certainly couldn\u2019t allow to happen would be for the Vice President to plead Nolo to a tax count and then to walk out and say, \u201cThis is nothing. This is some little mistake I made. This is absolutely, these guys are liars. I made a little mistake on my tax returns. I\u2019ve made amends. I\u2019m going to pay back the money that I should have paid and I\u2019m going back to work.\u201d<\/p>\n So, the statement of evidence was finally ready.<\/p>\n The Vice President\u2019s resignation letter was finally ready.<\/p>\n A 2pm court date was set. But not a single soul in the country, except for the people directly involved knew what was about to happen in that courtroom.<\/p>\n Now, the press knew that there was going to be a hearing in court that afternoon, something to do with the wrangling over the Agnew case, but what the press thought the hearing was going to be about\u2026 was them<\/em>. About newspapers\u2019 efforts to quash these subpoenas that Spiro Agnew\u2019s lawyers had sent to various reporters to try to get them to reveal their sources.<\/p>\n The press showed up that day ready to cover a hearing about that, all of the lawyers for the news organizations showed up at the counsel\u2019s table ready to fight about those subpoenas to the reporters.<\/p>\n And then \u2014 into the courtroom\u2013 walked the attorneys for the Vice President.<\/p>\n LONDON: And they see us walking in, and we sit at the near table, and they look at us with hostility! I mean, I mean, sneering, like Grrrrr! Just angry! And then, two federal marshals come over to them and they say, \u201cPick up all your papers and move to the gallery\u201d, and they\u2019re resistant but I mean, these are federal marshals and the marshals do not explain why. They just said, \u201cClear this table and clear it now! You can go stand in the back.\u201d And they stand in the back. And in walks, to occupy that table, Elliot Richardson, George Beall, and some more of Beall\u2019s Assistants.<\/p>\n LIEBMAN: The bailiff makes an announcement, you know, \u201cLadies and gentlemen, the proceeding is about ready to begin. This courtroom is going to be locked. So if you can\u2019t stay, you have to get out. You have to leave now.\u201d<\/p>\n The Baltimore prosecutors are there, sitting next to the Attorney General himself.<\/p>\n They know \u2014 and the Vice President\u2019s lawyers know \u2014 that what was about to happen in that courtroom, was something really big and surprising. The resignation was ready. The 40 page statement of his crimes was ready. The deal was ready and the country was about to have the whole thing sprung on them for the first time.<\/p>\n The hearing was set to begin at 2 o\u2019clock sharp. There was just one problem.<\/p>\n LONDON: It\u2019s now 2 o\u2019clock and I am sweating because at our table, is me and Jay Topkis, and Jud Best is back in the clerk\u2019s office on the telephone. And it\u2019s 2 o\u2019clock and somebody from this play is missing!<\/p>\n Everything was set. One of Agnew\u2019s lawyers was in the clerk\u2019s office at the court waiting to give the order over the phone to deliver Agnew\u2019s resignation letter, to transmit that letter to the Secretary of State as soon as the Vice President himself walked into the courtroom.<\/p>\n It was all choreographed, each moment scripted and ordered for a very specific reason. And the time was now. But the Vice President of the United States\u2026 was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n On the prosecution side, they had long feared that something just like this might happen.<\/p>\n LIEBMAN: What we were concerned was he, you know, he gets into court and he says, \u201cWell, wait a minute, I changed my mind. These are bogus charges. I don\u2019t know why I\u2019m here. I\u2019m the Vice President of United States. I\u2019m immune from prosecution. Marshal, could you unlock that door please? I gotta go.\u201d You know, we\u2019re dealing with the Vice President of the United States. We are being as careful as we can be. We\u2019re on tenterhooks, right? We want this done just so. It had to be done just so or it wouldn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n At 2 o\u2019clock, when the Vice President was the only one missing, it looked for a brief moment\u2026 like it might not happen. Even to Agnew\u2019s lawyers:<\/p>\n LONDON: Listen, you want to know if I got a little nervous between 2:00 and 2:01 because the man was a minute late? The answer is, I was anxious! I wouldn\u2019t say nervous, but I was anxious. I said, look, you know if I have a 2 o\u2019clock court date, I\u2019m there at a quarter of two, I mean I\u2019ve been doing this for a long time. I can understand him not wanting to come into that courtroom, and I do get it, him not wanting to come into that courtroom and sit there at that table for 15 minutes with all of those people staring at the back of his neck. So, I don\u2019t know, I assume that he, he may have been there at a quarter of two sitting in his car out at the curb, looking at the watch and saying (laughing) \u201cOkay, I better go in!\u201d And maybe my watch was a minute fast, maybe he was there at 2 o\u2019clock, I was anxious, but it never occurred to me that he was not going to do it.<\/p>\n That wait for the Vice President to show up, the question of whether or not he would show up, that hung in the air for a tense moment, until the courtroom doors swung open again:<\/p>\n LONDON: 2:01 exactly, in walks our client. And the people in the room, they gasped. It then became clear what this was about.<\/p>\n LIEBMAN: There was a noticeable hush. Gasp. You know, it was a surprise to so many people in there. The courtroom is locked. Agnew walks in, the judge gets on the bench, the bailiff or the law clerk calls \u201cOyez, oyez. All rise.\u201d Everybody rises, everybody sits down and there\u2019s, you know, Spiro Agnew in his well tailored suit and his nice haircut about to plead Nolo Contendere to a felony.<\/p>\n LONDON: Jud Best comes out of the clerk\u2019s office and says, \u201cI\u2019ve just been on the telephone with the offices of the Secretary of State, they have received the Vice President\u2019s resignation letter.\u201d And ultimately the judge accepts the plea and he sentenced him to a fine and a sentence of probation. And we walk out of the courtroom with the ex-Vice President of the United States. It was a stunning, um, stunning, stunning development.<\/p>\n For the first time in American history, a sitting Vice President appeared in court to answer criminal charges, for the first time in American history, a Vice President pled to a felony, and for the first time in American history, a Vice President resigned his office in disgrace.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew arrived at the courthouse as the Vice President, as he crossed the threshold into the courtroom, his resignation was simultaneously submitted. He left that courtroom minutes later, as a convicted felon. He then spoke to the stunned reporters outside who had had no idea that any of this was coming.<\/p>\n AGNEW: I categorically and flatly deny the assertions that have been made by the prosecutors with regard to their contention of bribery and extortion on my part \u2026 I will have nothing more to say at this point, I will make an address to the nation within a few days.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew\u2019s decision to agree to a plea deal and resign, it happened so fast, that Agnew\u2019s own staff at the White House didn\u2019t even know that day that it was going to happen. Here\u2019s David Keene, Agnew\u2019s top political aide:<\/p>\n DAVID KEENE (SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO VICE PRESIDENT AGNEW): He went to Baltimore to plead nolo and Mike Dunn\u2013 who was then the Chief of Staff \u2014 called the senior staff together to tell us. And I pounded my fist on the desk and said, \u201cCan\u2019t the son of a bitch have the balls to come tell us himself?\u201d<\/p>\n There was a lot of crazy stuff that happened in the United States of America in 1973.<\/p>\n But the Vice President of the United States suddenly resigning in disgrace\u2026 surprise! That stunned the country:<\/p>\n NEWS ANCHOR: Good evening. If you have just joined us, we are obliged to tell you the story we\u2019ve been running since shortly after 2 this afternoon: namely, that Vice President Spiro T. Agnew is now the former Vice President, he resigned today. It\u2019s been quite a day for news J.C.<\/p>\n NEWS ANCHOR: It really has. I think the public is still in shock, many people just disbelieve it, it\u2019s hard to accept that it has come to this.<\/p>\n NBC NEWS REPORTER: There was disbelief on Capitol Hill where most House and Senate members had come to believe the Vice President\u2019s assertions that he fully intended to fight the charges all the way.<\/p>\n SEN. MARK HATFIELD (R-OR): We have a period of time when there is political erosion. Confidence and faith in the whole system has been challenged by many people. And now to have this kind of confirmation of the worst suspicions that some people have held is really a very profound impact on the whole country.<\/p>\n REPORTER: Can you tell us what your reaction is to the resignation?<\/p>\n SEN. MIKE MANSFIELD (D-MT, MAJORITY LEADER): Well, uh, it was totally unexpected and I, uh, boy I don\u2019t know what to say.<\/p>\n That was the Majority Leader in the Senate at the time, Democratic Senator Mike Mansfield.<\/p>\n The reaction in the country to Spiro Agnew\u2019s sudden resignation was kind of a muddled mess, it was a lot of things all at once. It was stunned confusion from a lot of people, there was elation from those who felt that justice had been served. There was also absolute outrage from Agnew\u2019s supporters, who really had stayed with him right til the very end.<\/p>\n WOMAN: I\u2019m just sick about it, I think he\u2019s a man of his word and I think they\u2019ve all been doing the same thing ever since I started voting, and I think it\u2019s just too bad, I think he\u2019s a great man.<\/p>\n WOMAN: I think it was very unnecessary, I\u2019m just, ohhh, I\u2019m just sick. I\u2019m very unhappy. I don\u2019t think it was necessary, I think it\u2019s a lot of political hogwash, and I\u2019m ohhhh!<\/p>\n REPORTER: Did you vote for Agnew?<\/p>\n MAN: I certainly did.<\/p>\n REPORTER: What do you think of him now?<\/p>\n MAN: I think it\u2019s very unfortunate, the man seems to be railroaded or something. I don\u2019t know if this is all fact, a lot of insinuation is being brought out.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew built this base of support in the Republican Party, he convinced his supporters that he was innocent, he was the victim of a witch hunt. And even though he had just pled no contest to a felony in open court, his supporters just still couldn\u2019t accept it. They couldn\u2019t absorb it. They had been primed to believe in his innocence and to hate and resent and suspect everything about this prosecution.<\/p>\n But, you know, a weird thing happened in the courtroom that last weird day. It was just an odd moment in the courtroom itself that didn\u2019t seem like much at the time, but it would ultimately shake even Agnew\u2019s most committed supporters. And it would ultimately cost Agnew much more than just having to resign from office and walk away. That\u2019s next.<\/p>\n ***********<\/p>\n JOHN CHANCELLOR: Spiro Agnew is in disgrace. Fallen from power. A convicted criminal. It\u2019s something that none of his critics would even have predicted not long ago. And it is one of the biggest news stories of our time<\/p>\n The day that Spiro Agnew walked into a federal courthouse in Baltimore to plead to a felony and resign the Vice Presidency, one of the people inside the courtroom that day was a Law Professor from George Washington University. A professor named John Banzhaf.<\/p>\n JOHN BANZHAF (LAW PROFESSOR, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY): I showed up and initially they would not let me in. I was reluctantly let into the courtroom, but with a very solemn warning that if I attempted to say anything, if I stood up, if I did anything at all, there were two big marshals behind me and they would immediately take me out of the courtroom. And I was told in very strong language, \u201cDon\u2019t stand. Don\u2019t say anything. Don\u2019t try to have any role.\u201d<\/p>\n It was a little bit of a strange thing for this law professor to be in court that day. To him, it was stranger still the way that he felt threatened by those federal marshals. But in his view, the strangest thing about the whole proceeding in that courtroom that day was the resolution of it.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew was being allowed to plead to a felony, but he wasn\u2019t being sent to jail, and he wasn\u2019t even being forced to pay back any of the bribe money that he allegedly took.<\/p>\n What was the punishment here exactly? I mean, resigning from office, yes. But is that it?<\/em><\/p>\n After the remarkable day in court where \u2014 surprise! \u2014 the Vice President is pleading to a felony and, oh by the way, he\u2019s also resigned, after that day, Banzhaf went back to his law classes at GW. And there he found that his law student were as perplexed as he was about how the whole thing had shook out.<\/p>\n BANZHAF: I mean, they said to me, \u201cProfessor Banzhaf, if somebody robs a bank and he\u2019s given a plea deal, he\u2019s at least required to give back the money.\u201d Agnew, as a Governor and Vice President should be held to an even higher standard. They were outraged that he was allowed to get off on a minor plea, no time, and keep all the ill gotten gains.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew had resigned his office, he was basically starting to disappear into obscurity, but this class of law students decided they were going to make a project out of him. They weren\u2019t going to let him go away quietly.<\/p>\n The law students in Professor John Banzhaf\u2019s class came up with a plan. Their first effort was to lobby Maryland\u2019s Governor to bring a civil lawsuit against Agnew, since after all when he was taking those bribes and shaking down those contractors, it was the state of Maryland that was being defrauded. The state of Maryland should get that money back.<\/p>\n The Governor of Maryland met with these students to hear them out, to hear their plan. But even though he took the meeting and he heard what they had to say, at the end, he told them no, he wouldn\u2019t do it.<\/p>\n BANZHAF: When we left, we were literally bewildered. I recall riding back in the car and the students are saying, \u201cWell, why didn\u2019t they bring it? We don\u2019t understand. What\u2019s going on?\u201d And I\u2019m their professor who\u2019s supposed to know these things [laughing] and, of course, I had no answer for them. I could not figure out why they wouldn\u2019t want to bring the action. It was only quite a bit later when we learned that Governor Marvin Mandel was, likewise, on the take and was probably on the take, literally, while he was deciding not to bring this action!<\/p>\n The state of Maryland had been harmed, but the Governor of the state said he wasn\u2019t willing to bring this case. So the students went to Plan B, they found an old British common law legal principle that they believed would let them sue on Maryland\u2019s behalf even if they didn\u2019t have the state\u2019s support to do it. They found some Maryland taxpayers to be their plaintiffs.<\/p>\n And those law students did sue Spiro Agnew on behalf of Maryland taxpayers to recoup the bribe money that he had taken. It ended up taking years, but eventually they won! A court ruled that Agnew had, in fact, taken bribes, that he had defrauded the state, and he was ordered to write a check to the state of Maryland for more than a quarter million dollars.<\/p>\n And those students, they not-only exacted some of the punishment they felt like Agnew had escaped back in 1973, they also got one more crucial thing when it comes to the scales of justice here. They got a confession\u2026 Well, a confession by proxy<\/em>.<\/p>\n Back in 1973, when the investigation first started, Agnew himself \u2014 it turned out \u2014 had admitted his whole criminal scheme to his lawyer, his personal lawyer, a man named George White. Then, later, in his own book about the scandal, Agnew \u2014 oops\u2013 broke the confidentiality of his own Attorney-Client relationship with George White when he chose to write about the conversations he\u2019d had with White while the case was unfolding. That was a mistake.<\/p>\n Because when that lawsuit was eventually brought against Agnew by the law students at GW, not only was the court able to force Agnew to pay back some of the money he had ripped off from the taxpayers, the court was also able to get sworn testimony under oath from Agnew\u2019s own lawyer about Agnew confessing that he was guilty.<\/p>\n ANDREA MITCHELL: Today\u2013 only because ordered to by the judge\u2013 George White broke his silence. He described learning about the kickback scheme from three Agnew associates who were threatening to implicate the Vice President. Confronting Agnew, he said \u201cTed, this is terribly serious, you\u2019ve got to level with me, I\u2019ve got to know the truth.\u201d According to White, Agnew replied, \u201cIt\u2019s been going on for a thousand years, what they told you is true.\u201d<\/p>\n Quietly in the courts, when Spiro Agnew was already a trivia question \u2013 and a hard one! \u2013 quietly, while basically nobody was watching, Agnew\u2019s entire story fell apart, all the denials, all the claims that this was a witch hunt or that he was the real victim here. It all fell apart, and his guilt was laid bare in court and for the record\u2026 because his longtime personal lawyer flipped on him.<\/p>\n When Agnew showed up to court that day in October 1973 to plead to a felony and resign the Vice Presidency, that 40-page statement of evidence that was assembled by the prosecutors, it was released to the public.<\/p>\n It was this damning recitation of what Agnew had done as an elected official. All of the payoffs, all of the extortion, all of the crimes committed even as Vice President.<\/p>\n And that document\u2013 all these detailed allegations from the prosecutors\u2013 it is a matter of public record, but even so, it\u2019s one that sort of feels secret even now. All these years later, it is hard today to find that document even if you\u2019re really looking for it.<\/p>\n The information contained in it is not what people immediately think when they hear the name Spiro Agnew. \u201cOh yeah, Agnew, Nixon\u2019s Vice President, didn\u2019t he have like a tax evasion problem? Something from back before the time he became Vice President?\u201d That\u2019s how Agnew\u2019s remembered, but Agnew really was way worse than history remembers him for, if he\u2019s remembered at all.<\/p>\n Agnew basically disappeared into history after he resigned. He got a job working for Eva Gabor\u2019s fifth husband\u2013 seriously\u2013 Frank Sinatra helped him pay the relatively minor fines that were imposed by the court back in 1973, Agnew wrote a bad novel \u2014 a thriller with sort of unsettling sex scenes in it, frankly \u2014 he also published that memoir in which he claimed that Richard Nixon was going to have him killed. But basically, big picture, Agnew just went away.<\/p>\n And the few times that he did reappear, he was always asking for sympathy. This was from an interview with him in 1980:<\/p>\n AGNEW: The penalty I\u2019ve paid is very heavy. People say, \u201cAgnew didn\u2019t pay any penalty, he bought his way out of jail with the Vice Presidency\u201d, but they don\u2019t know what a penalty I paid. They don\u2019t understand I lost my right to practice law, I lost my pension, and the worst penalty of all is during those years immediately following my resignation when I was not at all answering the charges, to walk down the street and see people say \u201cthere he goes.\u201d You know, to be recognizable not just in the United States, but any place I went in the world. That\u2019s a pretty severe penalty.<\/p>\n Spiro Agnew probably does deserve to be more infamous than he is.<\/p>\n But the team of federal prosecutors who discovered his crimes and took him down, they deserve to be more famous than they are.<\/p>\n George Beall\u2013 the U.S. Attorney who refused to let pressure from the White House interfere with his investigation\u2013 he went on to prosecute that subsequent sitting Governor of Maryland for corruption. Marvin Mandel, a Democrat. He got him, too.<\/p>\n Ron Liebman and Barney Skolnik, they both took part in that prosecution of Maryland\u2019s next Governor. And then, like George Beall, they both moved into quiet careers in private practice.<\/p>\n Tim Baker, he ended up getting George Beall\u2019s old job as Maryland U.S. Attorney before he, too, went into private practice. They all ended up doing fine.<\/p>\n But none of them ended up etched into our history books and our national memory for the role that they played in\u2013 well\u2013 saving the republic from a national catastrophe, saving the country from a criminal Vice President ascending to the Presidency amid the ashes of Watergate, which would have plunged the country from Watergate right into another catastrophic scandal in the White House, and likely the forced removal of the next President right after Nixon.<\/p>\n What further damage would have been inflicted on the country if we had had to remove not one, but two corrupt criminal sitting Presidents back-to-back within months of each other?<\/p>\n These young kids from Baltimore, these determined federal prosecutors, they saved us from that disaster.<\/p>\n Their case was obstructed from the White House on down, they were attacked and maligned by the most powerful politicians in the country. They endured that at the ripe old average age of about 32. They kept their heads down and they kept going.<\/p>\n Their bosses\u2013 US Attorney George Beall and Attorney General Elliot Richardson\u2013 they led them without fear or favor, they shielded them. And then, Elliot Richardson single-handedly got Agnew out. Restoring and protecting the line of succession for the American Presidency.<\/p>\n Elliot Richardson held a press conference the day after Spiro Agnew resigned as Vice President. And remember, Elliot Richardson would himself be forced out of office just days later\u2013 less than two weeks later\u2013 in the Saturday Night Massacre.<\/p>\n But during that press conference upon the resignation of Agnew, Richardson was asked directly what lessons the country should take from what we\u2019d just been through:<\/p>\n REPORTER: We\u2019ve been through a period unprecedented in American history. What do you believe the nation can learn from the Agnew case?<\/p>\n ELLIOT RICHARDSON: I would hope first that the nation would feel that the process of criminal justice is one that it can trust and have confidence in. I would hope that it would feel that the interests of the nation have been placed first by all those concerned, including the Vice President himself. I would hope that, most fundamentally, all of us would have confidence that our system works. Indeed, I think this is the most affirmative aspect of all that has taken place over recent months, all the disclosures, the investigations, the indictments. They have exposed the shoddy side of the governmental and political process, but they have also demonstrated that the governmental and political process is capable of uncovering these things, and\u2013 having uncovered them\u2013 taking proper action.<\/p>\n The system works. The system is not destroyed by bad people behaving badly. It can deal with bad behavior and with corruption from those in power. Our system doesn\u2019t break when that happens. It\u2019s designed to confront that problem and to fix it.<\/p>\n And in this case it did.<\/p>\n A criminal occupant of the White House who tried to obstruct justice at every turn, to destroy the credibility of his own Justice Department, to smear the free press reporting on it\u2026 he was not allowed to get away with it.<\/p>\n Thanks to Elliot Richardson, and George Beall, and that team of young, scrappy Baltimore prosecutors, the line of succession to the U.S. presidency was restored and protected and justice was done.<\/p>\n George Beall passed away not long ago. He died in January of 2017, just days before the inauguration of our current President.<\/p>\n Upon his passing, one of his successors as U.S. Attorney in Maryland put out a public statement honoring the work that George Beall did throughout his career, but particularly focusing on this case.<\/p>\n The statement said this: \u201cGeorge Beall was a legendary federal prosecutor, an exemplary public servant and a lawyer of unsurpassed integrity \u2026 Although George Beall\u2019s family was politically active and Vice President Agnew was a member of Beall\u2019s own political party, Beall did not hesitate to pursue the case. His commitment to justice serves as an example to us all.\u201d<\/p>\n That statement about one Republican having the courage to pursue another without hesitation, that was written by one of George Beall\u2019s successors as Maryland U.S. Attorney\u2026 it was written by Rod Rosenstein, who is now Deputy Attorney General of the United States.<\/p>\n Be sure to join us next week for the final episode of \u201cBag Man\u201d, you will want to hear how this all turns out. That\u2019s next week, we\u2019ll see you then.<\/p>\n \u201cBag Man\u201d is a production of MSNBC and NBC Universal. This series is executive produced by Mike Yarvitz. It was written by myself and Mike Yarvitz. Editorial and production support from Jonathan Hirsch and Marissa Schneiderman from Neon Hum Media. And you can find much more about this story on our website: msnbc.com\/bagman<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n \n The post Transcript \u2013 Episode 6: A Disappearing Act<\/a> appeared first on MS NOW<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You can watch MSNBC online by subscribing to a streaming service that includes MSNBC, such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling, or Peacock<\/mark>.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n Hulu + Live TV<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n Sling<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n Peacock<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/strong> <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n \t<\/p>\n <\/ul>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div> This post<\/a> was originally published on this site<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KEEP MSNBC ON THE AIR: SUBSCRIBE A secret murder plot directed by the President?…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":492,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ms-now"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135719","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/492"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135719"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135719\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135720,"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135719\/revisions\/135720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinresists.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}[[[[[[[[[[[[[[SAVE MSNBC: JUST SUBSCRIBE TO IT<\/span><\/h2>\n
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