it s an issue that had never really been seriously considered and decided one way or the other before the justice department was confronted with it urgently during the nixon administration. but thanks to this, again, sort of odd series of things happening all at once in the early 70s, the vice president, spiro agnew, maybe going to prison, the president, richard nixon, making being removed from office against his will by impeachment. thanks to those things coming together all at once in a big felonious mess because the american people, in our infinite wisdom, thought it would be a good idea to elect guys that crimy to the white house, twice, thanks to that mess around nixon and agnew, the justice department in the early 70s h 70s 70s, that it was the policy not to bring criminal charges against a sitting president of the united states. that sni like an important landmark moment foran the nixon years. it s never a good sign when your presidency is so crimey, it forces eve
it s an issue that had never really been seriously considered and decided one way or the other. before the justice department was confronted with it urgently during the nixon administration. thanks to this sort of odd a series of things happening all at once in the early 70s, the vice president spiro ag new going to prison, the president, richard nixon, being removed by office against his will by impeachment. thanks to those things coming together all at once in a big felonious mess because the american people in our infinite wisdom that it be a good idea to elect guys that cry me to the white house twice, thanks to that mess around nixon and add new the justice department in the early 70s bumbled our way into putting down, on paper, that it was policy of the justice department to not ever bring criminal charges against a sitting president of the united states. and that s an important sort of, a landmark moment for the nixon years right? it s never a good sign when your presi
together, all at once in a big felonious mess because the american people in our infinite wisdom thought it would be a good idea to elect guys that crime-y to the white house twice, thanks to that mess around nixon and agnew, the justice department in the early 70s had bumbled their way into putting down on paper that it was the policy of the justice department to not ever bring criminal charges against a sitting president of the unite and that s like an important landmark moment fort nixon years, it s never a good sign that your presidency is so crime-y and forces a look at the rules whether you can a be president from in a prison cell. even i though that landmark was reached in theen nixon years, a they clarified mess on paper because of m nixon and agnew, t rule, the nuts and bolts of it never got tested at that time, never got tested by the events that surrounded the eventual downfall of nixon and agney, nixon resigned as president before beinged forced out and never cri
and the importance of that is that it means technically they never tried to charge nixon as a sitting president, nor did they ever try to charge agnew as a sitting vice president. they avoided testing that prospect with both nixon and agnew, each of them basically by the swing of their teeth. so the rules about not charging a sitting president, those rules were created, they took shape, they were formalized and put down in print during that crisis ofin criminality in the white 70s.in the early but that rule wasn t really tested at that time. that rule wasn t really tested until almost 50 years down the road, until our time in the history books, hooray for us, three years ago, 2019 when special counsel robert mueller completed the report of his investigation into russia interfering in our presidential election in 2016, to help the trump campaign. that was what volume one of
test it with nixon s criminal vice president spiro agnew who was running an extortion and bribery ring out of his office in the white house and got caught by federal prosecutors for doing so. with spiro agnew, federal prosecutors actually did bring federal charges against him, but they negotiated this very sensitive deal whereby agnew resigned the vice presidency immediately i mean right before seconds before he walked into the courtroom to formally face those federal charges. the importance of that is that it means, technically, they never tried to charge nixon as a sitting president nor did they ever try to charge agnew as a sitting vice president. they avoided testing that prospect with both nixon and agnew, each of them by the skin of their teeth. the rules about not charging a sitting president those rules were creative. they took shape, they were formalized and put down in print during that crisis of criminality in the white house