Disgraced vice president and former Maryland Gov. Spiro Agnew pleaded guilty to a federal tax evasion charge.
As Richard Nixon’s vice president, Agnew was forced to resign after he learned that he was under investigation by federal prosecutors looking into allegations that he regularly took kickbacks from contractors while he held state office.
Agnew became the second vice president to resign from office — the first, John C. Calhoun, resigned over political differences with the president and to take a seat as a U.S. senator.
Agnew was sentenced to three years’ probation. In 1981, a Maryland court ordered him to repay more than $248,000 to cover the cost of the bribes.
As Nixon’s vice president he was known for his staunch defense of the Vietnam War and his colorful attacks on war protesters, the press and political dissidents. He famously called the press “nattering nabobs of negativism.”
Agnew died of leukemia on Sept. 17, 1996, at the age of 77.
