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Because to some extent the justice department position right now that a president can't be indicted, it rests on the conclusions of that 1973 office of legal counsel opinion by robert dixon. i mean, that's where it started. that's the foundation. the justice department did take another look at the matter in 2000 during the clinton administration. stands as doj policy today, it starts with this 1973 doj opinion. we've spoken to j.t. smith some more about this in recent weeks, and what he says about the drafting of that olc opinion in 1973, as somebody who was there, it's just striking given the...

Is the gift that keeps on giving. the '73 memo, robert dixon was a distinguished lawyer, but it's always been seen by me at least as a really shotty piece of work that doesn't explain why when there is nothing in the constitution you can have a categorical rule against indicting a president. you've got to postpone the trial proceedings while he or she is serving, but, you know, more to the point, rachel, that memo was essentially repudiated nine months later. it was that september '73 memo was repudiated when the united states filed in united states supreme court in united states versus nixon ...

Was really worth playing if it allowed him to have kind of role he had with the saudis' jihad project. >> and, of course, all these things mesh together. i mean, agnew felt compelled to resign because he believed he was subject to indictment. the attorney general was able to bring that pressure to bear on him, only because nixon did -- excuse me, because agnew had no reason -- no real reason to believe he was going to be immune from prosecution. it is striking to me to see this top aide to attorney general elliot richardson at the time the time the ducixon memo was writt written. to the extent...

And the way that the history of it has been remembered since then is that that 1973 olc memo was written specifically with the richard nixon watergate problem in mind and it was a definitive look at whether a president can be indicted, and even in the context of watergate they believed that nixon -- really it was about agnew and specifically trying to get to an outcome where the answer would be, yeah, you can bring charges against agnew. what j.t. smith is saying here and, again, he was there when it was written, in the course of expressing the view that a vice president could be indicted, whi...

Acceptable for the president to be subject to criminal process while in office, but by distinction the vice president, whose duties are nowhere near as important, can be subject to criminal process. and that's one of the memos now cited for the proposition. but when it was written, it was a very close question and the professor in charge of the office of legal counsel wasn't clear how to answer it, but it got answered against the imperative of dealing with the agnew heartbeat away problem. >> got answered against the imperative dealing with the agnew heartbeat away from the presidency problem....