Nixon was wanting to get rid of him anyway.
Nixon had experience dealing with VP scandal from his days as VP.
He was undeniably immoral.
Agnew had avoided other plans of Nixon's to get rid of him or at least make him unimportant to politics.
Is there any real evidence of his crimes, or could it have been staged by Nixon to get a better VP?
C_Bar
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Well -- he didn't plead not guilty. Think he might have if he were indeed not guilty.
Nixon would have believed he, Nixon, would have been less likely to be impeached with Agnew, a disliked, outsider who spent his time in office attacking Dems, in office. Dems would havew thought twice about putting Agnew in as Prez, but could accept Ford, a moderate from Capitol Hill where he was personally well-liked.
Note re below: Agnew left a year after Nixon's landslide reelection. Nixon had considered replacing Agnew, but instead kept him on as running mate.
ktrb
He wasn't framed -- he really was that crooked, and arrogant enough to think he'd get away with it.
kse
Nixon considered Agnew to be a liability to his re-election campaign and, through Attorney General Elliott Richardson, started a JD investigation. In terms of actual evidence on a "set-up", I'm not aware of any--as noted he was convicted for accepting bribes from Maryland contractors and income tax evasion. Nixon offered him the position of Bicentennial Coordinator, which of course he turned down.
Anonymous
Agnew was a crook. He was convicted for corruption that took place while he was Governor of Maryland, prior to becoming VP under Nixon. There was not much love lost between them, but Nixon had nothing to do with his trial or conviction.
Hondo
Plain and simple: HE WAS SETUP.