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Can The Vice President Preside At His Own Impeachment Trial?: A Critique Of Bare Textualism, Joel K. Goldstein

All Faculty Scholarship

Turn the clock back for a moment to August 1973. In the midst of the burgeoning Watergate scandal, the nation discovered that Vice President Spiro T. Agnew was being investigated for allegedly accepting bribes from contractors, and for committing tax fraud while Governor of Maryland and Vice President. The investigation, by attorneys in the United States Attorneys Office in Maryland, ultimately gathered sufficient evidence to present to a grand jury. To avoid the spectre of likely indictment and prosecution, Agnew elected to resign his office and plead nolo contendere.[1]

But suppose Agnew had decided not to go quietly.[2] Instead of …