Editing Spiro Agnew (section)

===Subsequent career: 1973–1990===
Soon after his resignation, Agnew moved to his summer home at [[Ocean City, Maryland|Ocean City]].{{sfn|Wepman|2001}} To cover urgent tax and legal bills, and living expenses, he borrowed $200,000 (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{inflation|US|200000|1973}}}} in {{inflation/year|US}}){{inflation/fn|US}} from his friend [[Frank Sinatra]].{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=203}} He had hoped he could resume a career as a lawyer, but in 1974, the [[Maryland Court of Appeals]] disbarred him, calling him "morally obtuse".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/may_2_1974|title=May 2, 1974|access-date=November 2, 2018|archive-date=November 6, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106005031/http://www.abajournal.com/magazine/article/may_2_1974|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite court|litigants=Maryland State Bar Association v. Agnew|vol=318|reporter=A.2d|opinion=543|date=May 2, 1974|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=6559372552987098890|court=Md.}}</ref> To earn his living, he founded a business consultancy, Pathlite Inc., which in the following years attracted a widespread international clientele.<ref name=NYTobit/>{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=204}} One deal concerned a contract for the supply of uniforms to the Iraqi Army, involving negotiations with [[Saddam Hussein]] and [[Nicolae Ceauşescu]] of Romania.<ref name=NYTobit/>

Agnew pursued other business interests: an unsuccessful land deal in Kentucky, and an equally fruitless partnership with golfer [[Doug Sanders]] over a beer distributionship in Texas.{{sfn|Witcover|2007|pp=358–359}} In 1976 he published a novel, ''The Canfield Decision'', about an American vice president's troubled relationship with his president. The book received mixed reviews, but was commercially successful, with Agnew receiving $100,000 for serialization rights alone.{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=205}} The book landed Agnew in controversy; his fictional counterpart, George Canfield, refers to "Jewish cabals and Zionist lobbies" and their hold over the American media, a charge which Agnew, while on a book tour, asserted was true in real life.<ref>{{cite news |author-link=William Safire |last=Safire |first=William |title=Spiro Agnew and the Jews |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/24/archives/spiro-agnew-and-the-jews-essay.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=May 24, 1976 |access-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-date=August 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830203418/http://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/24/archives/spiro-agnew-and-the-jews-essay.html |url-status=live }}</ref> This brought complaints from Seymour Graubard, of the Anti-Defamation League of [[B'nai B'rith]], and a rebuke from President Ford, then campaigning for re-election.<ref>{{cite news |title=Ford Says Agnew is Wrong on Jews |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/26/archives/ford-says-agnew-is-wrong-on-jews-criticizes-comments-made-in-novel.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=June 26, 1976 |access-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-date=August 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830192322/http://www.nytimes.com/1976/06/26/archives/ford-says-agnew-is-wrong-on-jews-criticizes-comments-made-in-novel.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Agnew denied any antisemitism or bigotry: "My contention is that routinely the American news media ... favors the Israeli position and does not in a balanced way present the other equities".<ref>{{cite news |title=Agnew Asserts He Is Not a Bigot; Defends Right to Criticize Israel |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/31/archives/agnew-asserts-he-is-not-a-bigot-defends-right-to-criticize-israel.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 31, 1976 |access-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-date=August 30, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170830201822/http://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/31/archives/agnew-asserts-he-is-not-a-bigot-defends-right-to-criticize-israel.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Also in 1976, Agnew announced that he was establishing a charitable foundation "Education for Democracy", but nothing more was heard of this after B'nai B'rith accused it of being a front for Agnew's anti-Israeli views.{{sfn|Witcover|2007|pp=358–359}} Agnew's anti-Zionist views seemed to have developed after leaving office—as vice president, he expressed admiration for Israel and was friendly with his Jewish staff members.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Safire |first=William |date=1976-05-24 |title=Spiro Agnew and the Jews |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/05/24/archives/spiro-agnew-and-the-jews-essay.html |journal=[[The New York Times]] |quote=The Ted Agnew of 1970 was neither anti‐Zionist nor anti‐Semitic. On the contrary, like most Nixon men, he shared an admiration for the patriotism and courage of the Israelis—“moxie,” it was then called in the Cabinet room—and throughout his political career, many of his associates and staff members were Jews.}}</ref>

In 1977, Agnew was wealthy enough to move to a new home at The Springs Country Club in [[Rancho Mirage, California]], and shortly afterwards to repay the Sinatra loan.{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=203}} That year, in [[The Nixon Interviews|a series of televised interviews]] with British TV host [[David Frost]], Nixon claimed that he had had no direct role in the processes that had led to Agnew's resignation and implied that his vice president had been hounded by the liberal media: "He made mistakes ... but I do not think for one minute that Spiro Agnew consciously felt that he was violating the law".{{sfn|Witcover|2007|pp= 360–361}}

In 1980, Agnew wrote to [[Fahd of Saudi Arabia|Fahd bin Abdulaziz]], at the time Crown Prince and ''de facto'' Prime Minister of [[Saudi Arabia]], claiming that he had been bled dry by attacks on him by Zionists, whom he blamed for forcing him out of office. He requested an interest-free three-year loan of $2 million, to be deposited in a Swiss bank account, on which the interest would be available to Agnew. He stated that he would use the funds to "continue my effort to inform the American people of their (i.e., Zionists') control of the media and other influential sectors of American society." He also congratulated the crown prince on his call for [[jihad]] against Israel, whose declaration of Jerusalem as its capital he characterized as "the final provocation". A month later he thanked the crown prince for giving him "the resources to continue the battle against the Zionist community here in the U.S."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://leadstories.com/2016/11/spiro-agnew-saudi-prince-begging.html|access-date=December 6, 2020|date=November 27, 2016|title=History Uncovered: Secret Letter Shows How U.S. Vice President Got Saudi Payoff For Anti-Israel Views|first=Alan|last=Duke|publisher=Lead Stories|archive-date=December 7, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207075735/https://leadstories.com/2016/11/spiro-agnew-saudi-prince-begging.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{sfn|Maddow|Yarvitz|2020|pp=246–251}}

[[File:Rancho Mirage CA.JPG|thumb|alt=Palm trees line a busy four-lane street|Rancho Mirage, California, Agnew's home from 1977]]
In 1980, Agnew published a memoir, ''Go Quietly ... or Else''. In it, he protested his total innocence of the charges that had brought his resignation. His assertions of innocence were undermined when his former lawyer George White testified that his client had admitted statehouse bribery to him, saying it had been going on "for a thousand years".<ref name=obit2>{{cite news |last=Clines |first=Francis X. |title=Spiro T. Agnew, Point Man for Nixon Who Resigned Vice Presidency, Dies at 77 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/19/us/spiro-t-agnew-point-man-for-nixon-who-resigned-vice-presidency-dies-at-77.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=September 19, 1996 |access-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-date=September 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170907222950/http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/19/us/spiro-t-agnew-point-man-for-nixon-who-resigned-vice-presidency-dies-at-77.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Agnew also made a new claim: that he resigned because he had been warned by White House Chief of Staff [[Alexander Haig]] to "go quietly" or face an unspoken threat of possible assassination. Haig denied the story, saying that it was "preposterous", and the Agnew aide who supposedly reported this warning to Agnew also denied it, saying there was "never any threat of bodily harm".{{sfn|Maddow|Yarvitz|2020|pp=219–222}} Agnew biographer Joseph P. Coffey describes the claim as "absurd".{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=205}}

After the publication of ''Go Quietly'', Agnew largely disappeared from public view.{{sfn|Coffey|2015|p=205}} In a rare TV interview in 1980, he advised young people not to go into politics because too much was expected of those in high public office.<ref name=NYTobit/> Students of Professor [[John F. Banzhaf III]] from the [[George Washington University Law School]] found three residents of the state of Maryland willing to put their names on a case that sought to have Agnew repay the state $268,482, the amount it was said he had taken in bribes, including interest and penalties, as a public employee. In 1981, a judge ruled that "Mr. Agnew had no lawful right to this money under any theory," and ordered him to pay the state $147,500 for the kickbacks and $101,235 in interest.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/04/28/agnew-told-to-pay-state-248735-for-funds-he-accepted/1f336d8f-4a68-4191-8cd4-56ed640d021f/|title=Agnew Told to Pay State $248,735 for Funds He Accepted|last=Saperstein|first=Saundra|date=April 28, 1981|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=October 18, 2019|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=October 18, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018225621/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1981/04/28/agnew-told-to-pay-state-248735-for-funds-he-accepted/1f336d8f-4a68-4191-8cd4-56ed640d021f/|url-status=live}}</ref> After two unsuccessful appeals by Agnew, he finally paid the sum in 1983.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/05/us/agnew-gives-268482-check-to-maryland-in-graft-lawsuit.html |title=Agnew Gives $268,482 Check to Maryland in Graft Lawsuit |newspaper=The New York Times |agency=[[UPI]] |date=January 5, 1983 |access-date=June 7, 2018 |archive-date=June 13, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613001347/https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/05/us/agnew-gives-268482-check-to-maryland-in-graft-lawsuit.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite court|litigants=Agnew v. State|vol=446|reporter=A.2d|opinion=425|court=Md. App.|date=June 1, 1982|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14852775386170379937}}</ref> In 1989, Agnew applied unsuccessfully for this sum to be treated as tax-deductible.<ref name=obit2/>

Agnew also was briefly in the news in 1987, when as the plaintiff in Federal District Court in [[Brooklyn]], he revealed information about his then-recent business activities through his company, Pathlite, Inc. Among other activities, Agnew arranged contracts in Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, and represented a conglomerate based in South Korea, a German aircraft manufacturer, a French company that made uniforms, and a dredging company from Greece. He also represented the Hoppmann Corporation, an American company attempting to arrange for communications work in Argentina. He also discussed with local businessmen a potential concert by Frank Sinatra in Argentina. Agnew wrote in court papers "I have one utility, and that's the ability to penetrate to the top people."<ref name=NYTobit/>