justice samuel alito - and no one else there s no other birthdays o that day [laughter thank, you my friend thank you and thank you at-home for joining us this. our i m happy to have you here i know it is weird to have m here on a thursday, like i was last night, and now and friday as i am tonight. i know that is unusual but your usual host at thi hour, the great alex wagner, i off on a family vacation thi week great week to choose, alex wagner and because she is a way, yo are stuck with me. i apologize, alex wagner we ll be back next week. but tonight, because you are stuck with me, you are als stuck with this. - believe you and i have all received copies of the statement that i read to the court, in open court as i said in that statement, the reason that i have changed my decision to fight thi matter is because i now believ it would be against th national interest and have a brutalizing effect on my family, that s had a long two-year struggle concerning this matte
tonight. but your usual host at thi hour would be alex wagner s of on a family vacation this week great week to choose, alex and because she is a way you are stuck with me. i apologize. alex we ll be back next week but tonight, because you are stuck with me, you are als stuck with this. gentlemen, i believe you ve all received copies of the prepared statement that i read to the court in open court as i said in that statement, the reason i changed m decision to fight this matte is because i do not believe it would be against the nationa interest and we have a brutalizing effect of my famil and is gone a through two-year struggle concerning this matter. you also may be aware that wha i said in open court, that i categorically and flatly den the assertions that were mad by the private prosecutors wit regard to their contentions of bribery and extortion on m part i will have nothing more to sa at this point. i will make an address to th nation within a few days and so the cri
happened was a plea deal tha included that person leaving public life forever. that s what happened before. that should inform how we thin about what is happening now. joining us now is ro liebermann, former distric attorney for the district of new york he was a member of the fearles young team that prosecuted house president spiro agnew an i met him during the productio of my podcast. ron, nice to see you thank you for being here i m happy to be here, rache maddow ron, let me just ask you, i i got any of that wrong or i i m putting any of the emphasi in the wrong place in terms of how you think about both wha you went through and potential parallels here no, you ve got it right it was a very tense time for the prosecutors. as you mentioned, mr. agne came after us and came after u personally but we were young and we had a
one of the important variables that is filled in next week, ron. but it strikes me that there was really one other different that might be operable and important here, which is tha it was a surprise what you all arranged, that plea agreemen that was arranged with spiro agnew. the day that he appeared i court in october 1973, nobod knew and you tell us this in grea detail and it s a better par of the drama nobody knew that agnew is goin to be there in court that da and that he was going to pla in that nobody knew he was going to resign. nobody knew either side of how that plea agreement was goin to play out in open court that day. and when i looked again toda at that footage of his supporters being so upset, his supporters in congress sayin nobody s gonna have faith in america anymore, and their supporters in the streets, there were so rabbit, they los the words, they were furious about this - i wonder if there had been fou or five or six days warning,
maryland 1972 to 1979. he was a member of the fearles young team that prosecuted house president spiro agnew an i met him during the productio of my podcast. ron, nice to see you thank you for being here i m happy to be here, rache maddow ron, let me just ask you, i i got any of that wrong or i i m putting any of the emphasi in the wrong place in terms of how you think about both wha you went through and any potential parallels here no, you ve got it right it was a very tense time for the prosecutors. as you mentioned, mr. agne came after us and came after u personally but we were young and we had a job to do. and we just stopped listenin to that. a prosecutor s job is to bring a case that s what we did the one thing that distinguishes, to a degree, th agnew case, and how it was resolved, and one of course wa his fear of going to jail,