2. Becoming the 39th Vice President of the United States as Richard Nixon’s running mate, Spiro Agnew was only the second inhabitant of the office to resign after facing charges of corruption and bribery
In early 1973, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, where Agnew had served as Executive of Baltimore County between 1962 and 1966 and Governor from 1967 to 1969, opened an investigation into corruption in said county. Subpoenaing engineering firms and public contractors, Beall’s inquiry discovered that Lester Matz’s engineering firm had been paying five percent of the value of its contracts to Agnew. Upon further examination, it became clear that not only occurred during Agnew’s tenure in Maryland, but the payments had also continued into his vice presidency. Protesting his innocence, Agnew nevertheless became formally under investigation for tax fraud and corruption.
Turned on by his former conspirators, Matz, along with several other contractors, testified against Agnew. Coinciding with an escalation of the Watergate investigation, Agnew continued to fight the allegations. Asserting a sitting Vice President could not be indicted, as the situation grew increasingly bleak Agnew entered into negotiations. Informing Nixon of his intent to resign on October 9, the following day Agnew pleaded no contest to a single felony charge of tax evasion. Fined $10,000 and placed on three years’ probation, Agnew resigned the same day to be replaced by House Minority Leader Gerald Ford in the first invocation of the Twenty-fifth Amendment.