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Well Rid. And there was none until at last the Vice President found himself alone, unsupported by his President and with his options running out. It looked as though it would come down to a courtroom fight, and the evidence had piled up against him. "I have never seen a stronger extortion case," says U.S. Attorney James R. Thompson of Chicago, who was brought into the affair at the last minute to augment Justice's firepower. "If it had gone to trial, a conviction would have resulted. The man is a crook. The country is well rid of him."
On Friday, Oct. 5, Agnew gave the word to reopen the negotiations to Judah Best, his Washington lawyer. Best immediately got in touch again with Fred Buzhardt, who was in Key Biscayne. Both men are fond of direct action and short, pungent phrases, and they understood each other completely. Buzhardt was definitely interested in talking. That night Best grabbed a plane to Florida and the two men met in a Miami motel in the predawn hours. Their approach was simple: let's get off dead center—the country requires that something be done. After their talk, Buzhardt called the Justice Department—again clearly with the approval of President Nixon—and the second round of plea bargaining began on Monday evening in a motel in Alexandria, Va., just across the Potomac River from Washington.
Best directed the Agnew team. The Justice lawyers were led by Henry Petersen, head of the criminal division and the man whom Vice President Agnew had accused in his Los Angeles speech of being out to get him as a personal trophy. Again the discussions exploded into arguments. As a condition of any deal, Petersen insisted that all of the evidence against Agnew be made public; Richardson was convinced that this was necessary so that there could be no charges from Agnew and his followers that he had been railroaded. Petersen also joined Maryland U.S. Attorney George Beall and his prosecutors in insisting on jail for Agnew. Best dug in his heels on both demands. The group was joined by the presiding judge in the case, Walter E. Hoffman. Unlike his subordinates, Attorney General Richardson had been willing all along to let Agnew escape jail, but he wanted to make no such recommendation to the judge, leaving it up to Hoffman to let the accused off with probation. A veteran of 19 years on the bench, Hoffman insisted that he would not do so unless Richardson himself recommended leniency. Deadlocked, the conferees broke up.
With that, Richardson faced the task of trying to persuade Petersen, Beall and his staff that in the best interests of the country, Agnew should be allowed to go free if the right formula could be worked out. TIME has learned that, in order to placate his aides, Richardson took the unusual step of allowing anyone who could not live with that decision to make a public statement of his objections. He gave his word that any dissenter would not damage his career at Justice by speaking out.
That point settled, Richardson himself joined the bargaining session the next day at the Justice Department. With the Attorney General listening closely, Judge Hoffman reiterated that he wanted a recommendation from Richardson before granting probation to Agnew. Finally, Richardson agreed.