Why did Spiro Agnew resign?

Knew of the Watergate Break-In,tried to save the presidency for Nixon,but the sh!t kept rolling downhill !

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Why did Spiro Agnew resign?

Vp Agnew

they didn't want him to be president since he was not qualified to do the job. It looked as if Nixon might be removed from office, but that would have made Agnew president..the establishment had to get him out of the way to make room for an acceptable successor to tricky dick.

He had Mafia and organized crime connections.

Sure he did some minor tax fraud and bribe stuff like most politicians. But the big issue was in the Post Bobby Kennedy World of stopping crime Agnew had dirty hands and every one they shook were also getting dirty.

Go big Red Go

Source I knew his lawyer.

On October 10, 1973, Agnew became the second Vice President to resign the office. Unlike John C. Calhoun, who resigned to take a seat in the Senate, Agnew resigned and then pleaded nolo contendere (no contest) to criminal charges of tax evasion and money laundering, part of a negotiated resolution to a scheme wherein he allegedly accepted $29,500 in bribes during his tenure as governor of Maryland. Agnew was fined $10,000 and put on three years' probation. The $10,000 fine only covered the taxes and interest due on what was "unreported income" from 1967, even though there was evidence that the payments continued while he was vice president. The plea bargain was later mocked as the "greatest deal since the Lord spared Isaac on the mountaintop" by former Maryland Attorney General Stephen Sachs. Students of Professor John Banzhaf from The George Washington University Law School, collectively known as Banzhaf's Bandits, found four residents of the state of Maryland willing to put their names on a case and sought to have Agnew repay the state $268,482 - the amount he was known to have taken in bribes. After two appeals by Agnew, he finally resigned himself to the matter and a check for $268,482 was turned over to the Maryland state Treasurer William James in early 1983. Agnew was also later disbarred by the State of Maryland.

His resignation triggered the first use of the 25th Amendment, as the vacancy prompted the appointment and confirmation of Gerald Ford as his successor. It remains one of only two times that the amendment has been employed to fill a Vice Presidential vacancy. (The other time was when Ford, after becoming President, chose Nelson Rockefeller to succeed him as Vice President.)

After the 1972 landslide Agnew was seen as Nixon's natural successor in 1976. With the strong support of the party's conservative wing, he had planned to decide on running only after the 1974 midterm elections. He had also hoped to build on his foreign policy credentials by visiting the Soviet Union. However the scandal broke and damaged him. Nixon was also not supportive of Agnew replacing him and in April 1973 his staff was cut back and duties trimmed. Privately, Agnew blamed Nixon for releasing the accusations of bribes and tax evasion in order to divert attention from the growing Watergate scandal that was engulfing Nixon's administration.[citation needed]

As fate would have it, Nixon was forced from office but Agnew's earlier resignation and criminal charges ruined any hopes of a Agnew presidency. The two men never spoke to each other again. As a gesture of reconciliation, Nixon's daughters requested that Agnew attend Nixon's funeral in 1994, and Agnew complied.

He was taking the fall for what happened with Watergate. There was hope that if he fell for his part, Nixon would be in' the clear.

He was caught up in a scandal as the former Governor of Maryland.

Felony indictment.

He was a tax cheat and got caught doing it.