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House as vice president. he was literally taking envel e envelopes of cash cribs inside his vice presidential office and because of what those prosecutors had turned up, that fall of 1973, attorney general elliott richardson had a problem because he knew what spiro agnew were up to and if richard nixon went down in watergate, an active criminal was next in line to replace him. but it was not entirely clear to the attorney general if he, if the justice department could actually bring charges against the vice president. it wasn't clear if it was legal to indict a sitting vice president of the un...

Head of the olc robert dixson to come up with an official justice department answer to the suddenly very pressing question about whether a sitting vice president could be indicted. and what j.t. smith told us in an interview for bagman is that robert dixson, that pressure packed fall of 1973, robert dixson really wasn't sure what the right answer was to that question. listen. >> he was asked by the attorney general as one should do to write an objective legal opinion on the amenability of the vice president to criminal process. >> right. >> and his office dug through 200 years of constitutiona...

Sitting vice president and he was using anything he could to get agnew out of office. his opinion did conclude as richardson wanted that a vice president can be indicted but listen to what j.t. smith says and what else got folded into the opinion for robert dixson to get to that desired position. >> he could have written it either yes or no. and he wrote it yes but in order to get to yes, he had to draw a distinction between the vice president and the president. so the opinion came down on the side that the president's constitutional duties are so important that it is not acceptable for the pr...

The policy on this, what the justice department position was can you indict a sitting president and 40 count felony indictment against the president simmering on the stove on the u.s. attorney's office in maryland ready to be served up at any time. was he in fact immune from such federal charges? could that indictment be filed against him? legally they needed to know. also, practically. with nixon teetering because of watergate, with the threat with the guy that would succeed nixon was a known and active criminal and the attorney general elliott richardson needed to know if he would use at lea...

The issue of whether a president can be indicted and the context of watergate, they believe 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 is in the course of expressing the view that a vice president can be indicted, which was the imperative of the moment, robert dixson opined on the president's ameanbility to the indictment but wasn't the intent of the memo but asserted that about the president to make the relevant ...