Word: agnew
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...Lester Matz, 49, partner in Matz, Childs and Associates, another Maryland construction consulting firm, and a contributor to Agnew's campaigns...
TIME has learned that at least two of Beall's witnesses, Wolff and Matz, have accused Agnew of extorting campaign contributions from state and federal contractors in Maryland. Sources close to the investigation said that some of the rake-off methods were quite sophisticated, including one plan in which contractors favored with government business awarded fake bonuses to employees in the know, always being careful to deduct the proper withholding taxes, and then scooped them back for secret donations to politicians. The contractors in question worked on, among other things, state roads and two huge bridge-building projects...
Since both Wolff and Matz, Agnew's primary accusers, are themselves believed to be deeply involved in the payoff scandal, they are presumably being forced by the Government into the position of being "willing to give up Agnew to save themselves," as one observer bluntly put it. Wolff was said to be especially anxious to make a deal and avoid being forced to testify under limited, or so-called "use" immunity...
...Agnew argued that the credibility of such witnesses is open to serious question. "These accusations," he said, "are coming from those who have found themselves in very deep trouble and are seeking to extricate themselves from this trouble and are flirting with the idea that they can obtain immunity or reduced charges, perhaps, by doing so." Moreover, according to an observer familiar with the investigation, the Government's case "is based principally, up to now, on the witnesses' testimony." If the case should ever go to trial in that form?one man's word against that of two others?...
...reasoned President Nixon's attorneys in arguing last week that the Chief Executive need not give tape recordings of White House conversations to Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox, not even if they contain evidence of a crime. That argument, along with the disclosure that Vice President Agnew was being investigated by a federal grand jury looking into bribery, extortion and conspiracy, prompted legal experts to debate two questions: 1) Is the President's argument that he is immune from prosecution sound? 2) If so, could it be used by Agnew...