Word: agnew
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Nixon cannot disown Agnew without further angering the conservatives in both parties. A Gallup poll last week showed that only 32% of the nation approved of the way that the President was handling his job, a drop of 6% since the Agnew case erupted and only 1% above his low mark during the depths of Watergate. And a Harris poll reported that 51% of the American people feel that Congress would be justified in beginning impeachment proceedings against the President if he refused a court order to turn over the Watergate tapes to a panel of judges...
...part, read one of the more unusual directives ever issued by a U.S. federal judge. The order, by Judge Walter E. Hoffman, came last week in response to complaints by lawyers representing Vice President Spiro Agnew, who is being investigated by a Maryland grand jury for allegedly taking bribes and for other misconduct. The lawyers had contended that the grand jury's investigation should be halted because a campaign of "malicious, immoral and illegal" leaks by Justice Department officials was designed to deprive the Vice President of his "basic rights to due process and fair hearing...
Anybody subpoenaed who refuses to answer questions could be subject to jail sentences for contempt of court. Newsmen are particularly vulnerable, of course, because of their resistance to naming confidential sources. Doing a little leaking of his own, a source close to Agnew's defense indicated to TIME that the lawyers may not insist that reporters name each individual who provided information: the newsmen may be asked merely to confirm under oath that their stories accurately attributed leaks to "Justice Department sources." But what if they balk at this compromise? Will Agnew's attorneys then...
...days after Judge Hoffman handed down his order, Agnew's lawyers served subpoenas on TIME and Newsweek, plus reporters for both magazines, the New York Times, the New York Daily News, the Washington Post, the Washington Star-News, CBS and NBC. Subpoenas also were headed for Attorney General Elliot Richardson, Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus and Assistant Attorney General Henry Petersen...
Judge Hoffman has ordered that the testimony of those subpoenaed "be sealed and not made part of any public file." He has also instructed Agnew's lawyers not to discuss the testimony publicly. Whether or not this attempt to impose some rare secrecy on the Agnew case succeeds, it was clear that Hoffman's three-paragraph directive posed a perplexing array of public questions relating not only to the case but to the order itself. It also raised again the issue of how to reconcile the rights of a defendant with the rights of a free press...