Word: agnew
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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...
...Baltimore grand jury is not expected to ask the Vice President to testify before it. If asked, however, Agnew will refuse, since he is challenging the grand jury's authority over him. But the jury is expected to call various Agnew associates, as well as contractors, consultants and developers who won contracts from Baltimore County at a time when Agnew was County Executive and from the State of Maryland when Agnew was its Governor. Some have told federal prosecutors that they made or handled regular payoffs to Agnew in return for the profitable work. One reason for calling them...
Apart from his constitutional defense, Agnew will eventually contend in the case that he never received any such money for his personal use. If these men did make any payments, he will argue, it was in the form of political campaign contributions that were handled by his fund raisers. If any favoritism was shown such donors, he will insist, it was done by his various subordinates in government...