Word: agnew
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...charges of political corruption against Vice President Spiro Agnew grew more serious last week. Although he has publicly dismissed them as "damned lies," he was notified that the Justice Department considers them of sufficient gravity for a federal grand jury in Baltimore to be allowed to hear the evidence against him. The jury probably will begin doing so this week...
...Attorney General Elliot Richardson had decided that the grand jury should look into the matter. They warned, however, that this does not necessarily mean that Richardson or the Justice Department's prosecutor in the case, U.S. Attorney George Beall, have decided to ask the grand jury to indict Agnew. TIME has learned that the Justice Department is, in fact, leaning toward a unique course: rather than seeking an indictment, it may ask the grand jury after hearing the case to issue a report (technically a "presentment") on its findings and to transmit it to the House of Representatives...
Jurisdiction Fight. Such a course would be designed to avoid a protracted legal struggle over the constitutional question of whether a Vice President must be impeached before facing any criminal charges in the courts. But TIME has learned that such a clash may be imminent anyway. Agnew's lawyers intend to fight any such action as illegal, on the constitutional argument that the grand jury has no jurisdiction over the Vice President unless or until he is first impeached by the House of Representatives and removed from office after a trial in the Senate...
Soon after the grand jury begins hearing any evidence against Agnew, his attorneys will file a motion in federal district court seeking a restraining order to block any such testimony. It presumably will ask District Judge Walter E. Hoffman, who was appointed to oversee the Maryland grand jury's work, for the order. Even if the jury does not seek to indict Agnew, and its proceedings are designed to gather evidence for transmittal to the House, the Agnew lawyers will contend that this unprecedented action would be a breach of the Constitution's separation of power between...
...been no prior decisions on whether grand jury proceedings are proper against a sitting Vice President. Although there is no indication that President Nixon is in danger of indictment, one of his arguments against the Watergate grand jury's demand for the tapes was similar to the expected Agnew claim: that the grand jury has no authority to touch the President unless he is first impeached and removed from office. Legal scholars differ on whether the President and Vice President are in precisely the same position under the law on this point...