PRECEDENTS
MAY 2, 1974
Spiro Agnew Disbarred
As self-appointed spokesman for the silent majority, Vice President Spiro Agnew vigorously lashed
out at critics of the Nixon administration. His pugnacious speeches—served up with an alliterative
flair—were as pithy as they were polarizing, leading many in the White House to wonder whether
Agnew was more a liability than an asset. • That became a moot question after a Baltimore grand
jury investigating political corruption linked him to various crooked deals spanning his tenure as
county executive, Maryland governor and even as vice president. He avoided indictments on
bribery and extortion by pleading no contest to a single charge of tax evasion. Agnew (pictured
above shortly after the plea) resigned from office on Oct. 10, 1973—10 months before Nixon him-
self would resign in response to the Watergate investigation. • Describing him as “morally obtuse,”
the Maryland Court of Appeals disbarred Agnew in May 1974. In the early ’80s, he repaid more
than $268,000 in kickbacks and interest to the state as the result of a civil suit. —George Hodak
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