Word: agnew
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...Agnew eventually rejected that offer, unwilling to settle for anything less than complete amnesty as the price of yielding office. But the bargaining, say these sources, accounted for the mysterious delay in presenting the Agnew evidence to the grand jury after Richardson had decided that that was the inescapable course of action and had so notified Agnew. All parties to the secret negotiations denied that any such talks had taken place...
...latest round in the Agnew crisis began with a story by the Washington Post quoting an unnamed "senior Republican figure" as saying that he came away from more than two hours of conversation with Agnew "99½% certain he will resign - and probably this week." The Post gave the story an eight-column banner headline, but its punch came from the fact that it was written by David S. Broder. A Pulitzer prizewinner, Broder not only has excellent Agnew sources - he was the first to say that Nixon was considering the little-known Maryland Governor as his running mate...
...Comment. Rumors soon spread that Senator Barry Goldwater was the source for Broder's story and that the White House was naming the Senator, but Goldwater emphatically denied the charge. "You won't believe this," Goldwater told one of Agnew's aides, "but as fast as my staff can put out denials, somebody at the White House spreads the word that I was the source...
Because Goldwater commands immense prestige among conservative Republicans, some of Agnew's staffers understandably began to suspect that the White House engaged in a little Machiavellianism to force the Vice President to resign. This theory was reinforced by a story in the New York Times the following day asserting that some high-ranking White House officials - again unnamed - had been saying that "it might be best for Vice President Agnew to resign and allow President Nixon to choose a new Vice President...
Reporters sought Agnew for confirmation, setting up ambushes for him whenever he appeared in public. But Agnew stuck by his oft-enunciated rule never to comment on any report that did not name the source, and indeed refused comment on anything all week...