Word: agnew
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Fist Banging. Desperately, Agnew went back to the tactic that he had first tried and then abandoned: working out a deal with the Justice Department under which he would be accused of a relatively minor charge if he agreed to resign. Known as "plea bargaining"-or, less elegantly, "copping a plea"-the practice is commonly used in all courts. The prosecution settles for a sure conviction rather than going to the trouble or expense of proving a more ambitious- and time-consuming-case in court...
...early September, trying to find a way out of the mess, White House Counsel Fred Buzhardt, almost surely acting at Nixon's behest, had secretly initiated plea-bargaining sessions between Agnew's lawyers and Attorney General Elliot Richardson and his top aides. From the outset, the overriding goal of Agnew's lawyers had been to keep their client from going to jail. Held in the huge, red-carpeted room just outside Richardson's office, the bargaining sessions were long and heated, the men often shouting at each other as they maneuvered for a settlement. Even Richardson...
...while the men were still arguing, the press learned about the bargaining. The resulting stories infuriated Agnew. "That's enough," he said. "There'll be no more negotiation...
...Friday, Oct. 5, Agnew gave the word to reopen the negotiations to Judah Best, his Washington lawyer. Best immediately got in touch again with Fred Buzhardt, who was in Key Biscayne. Both men are fond of direct action and short, pungent phrases, and they understood each other completely. Buzhardt was definitely interested in talking. That night Best grabbed a plane to Florida and the two men met in a Miami motel in the predawn hours. Their approach was simple: let's get off dead center-the country requires that something be done. After their talk, Buzhardt called the Justice...
Best directed the Agnew team. The Justice lawyers were led by Henry Petersen, head of the criminal division and the man whom Vice President Agnew had accused in his Los Angeles speech of being out to get him as a personal trophy. Again the discussions exploded into arguments. As a condition of any deal, Petersen insisted that all of the evidence against Agnew be made public; Richardson was convinced that this was necessary so that there could be no charges from Agnew and his followers that he had been railroaded. Petersen also joined Maryland U.S. Attorney George Beall...