You. this rule boggles th imagination. was the role adopted t actually shield president nixon? yes, there was a feelin that nixon was going to go under in 73 and this would be way to protect nixon s power but alas, watergate did happen and many of the spiro agnew ha to resign. the vice president, over bribery charges. could ve gone to jail but he didn t but then all of the presidents methadone iksan including attorney general joh mitchell ended up doing jail time the president was seen a something unique and leave i to protect we did not have the weir spectacle of former u.s. president or a sitting one suddenly indicted and put in jail that is why trump is such strange aberration going o right now. but in most of american history, presidents either came out o the u.s. military meaning yo learned a code of honor.