The information has been filled with considerations in regards to the destiny of our republic following the indictment of former President Donald Trump. There have been questions in regards to the politicization of felony legal guidelines and the credibility of the judiciary, the polarization of the voters and threats of violent home response.
However these considerations pale compared to the risk to the democratic system posed 50 years in the past this summer season, when it grew to become shockingly clear that the nation was being run by a president, Richard Nixon, and a vp, Spiro Agnew, who have been each concurrently beneath felony investigation for wholly unrelated conduct.
What’s now the controversy buzzword “obstruction of justice” was then the extra mysterious buzzword “nolo contendere.” The place the primary one refers to a provision of felony regulation, the second refers to a not often utilized pleading system. And people distinctions make a distinction.
For one entails felony allegations involving a former president exterior of energy but searching for a return to workplace. The opposite entails the criminality of these truly sitting in energy — Agnew pleaded no contest to the felony cost towards him whereas serving beneath Nixon, who himself was beneath felony investigation.
And the nation’s skill to outlive the latter risk strongly suggests its skill to outlive the previous.
Agnew was a bodily imposing but politically unremarkable determine when chosen out of obscurity to be Nixon’s working mate in 1968.
As vp, Agnew assumed the limelight with a sequence of extremely charged political speeches wherein he colorfully challenged most of the main establishments of the day seen by Nixon as his “enemies.” Agnew’s use of phrases comparable to “nattering nabobs of negativism” and “pusillanimous pussyfooters” endeared himself to ultraconservatives.
All of the whereas, the U.S. lawyer in Baltimore was assembling overwhelming proof of Agnew’s participation in a bribery scheme involving kickbacks from distributors doing enterprise with native authorities. These funds started within the early Nineteen Sixties and continued whereas he was vp; some money funds have been truly made within the White Home.
Early in 1973, Agnew knowledgeable the White Home of the existence of the investigation.
Privately, Agnew started plea cut price negotiations with the Division of Justice. Publicly, he denounced the investigation because the efforts of “small and fearful males who’ve been frightened into furnishing proof towards me.”
The plea negotiations continued into early October, when the DOJ yielded on its demand for jail time to the overarching public curiosity in Agnew stepping down from workplace given the tensions of the continuing Nixon controversy. The stakes have been merely unprecedented. On Oct. 10, Agnew agreed to resign instantly and pleaded nolo contendere (“no contest”) to 1 felony cost of tax evasion.
Gerald Ford peacefully succeeded Agnew as vp, and the nation survived the fast disaster.
But for a interval of virtually two years the nation had been led by a president who was beneath lively Senate investigation for a large scope of allegedly felony acts, whereas the vp was beneath lively investigation for accepting kickbacks throughout his time period of workplace — a “run-of-the-mill criminal,” as journalist and writer Garrett Graff noticed.
None of that is to decrease the importance of the considerations introduced by the Trump indictment, for there’s a lot to be involved about. However it’s to underscore the underlying energy and resilience of the American Structure. Historical past’s message is that the republic has been sturdy sufficient to beat challenges that reduce to its core ideas.
For if the nation was in a position to survive the challenges of summer season 1973, it definitely ought to have the ability to survive the challenges of summer season 2023.
Michael Peregrine is a Chicago lawyer and was a volunteer for the Committee to Reelect the President in 1972 whereas at Oak Park Excessive College. ©2023 Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Tribune Content material Company.
