Article II, Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
Please note the phrase "Vice President and all civil officers of the United States" Whatever protection the President has under this section applies to the Vice President and the President's officiers as well. Pretty plain English to me. Doesn't say "Only the President, and not the Vice President and other civil officiers of the United States," now does it? The reality is the Constitution is unclear on the matter of impeachment before or after criminal proceedings. An argument can be made that the President isn't immune from proscuetion. Yes, I know, everyone interepts that section to mean the President has to be impeached first. But the bottomline is that Bork was arguing out of his rear end to somehow say the Vice President didn't enjoy the same legal protection as the President. The DOJ's memorandums on the subject are flawed and wrong.
The matter has not been decided. It will take a legal case before the SCOTUS to decide what Article II, Section 4 says, though like I said it is pretty clear and not subject to "That depends on what 'is' is" parsing. There is a crying need for a Constitutional amendment to clearly define who and what is protected under Article II, Section 4. I would argue that the Vice President should have exactly the same protections as the President, and even extend that priviledge to the Cabinet officers, otherwise it exposes the Executive Branch to all sorts of mischief.
Good post! Thanks for the info.