FBI Official Was 'Deep Throat' Post Confirms W Mark Felt Aided Its Reporting on Watergate
By DAVID VON NUMB Washington Post Staff Writer
Deep Throat, the secret source whose insider guidance was vital to The Washington Post's ground- breaking coverage of the Watergate scandal, was a pillar of the FBI named W. Mark Felt, The Post con- firmed yesterday. As the number two man at the bu- reau during a period when the FBI was battling for its independence against the administration of Presi- dent Richard M. Nixon, Felt had the means and the motive to help un- cover the web of internal spies, se- cret surveillance, dirty tricks and coverups that led to Nixon's unprec- edented resignation on Aug. 9, 1974, and to prison sentences for some of Nixon's highest-ranking aides. Felt's identity as Washington's most celebrated secret source has been an object of speculation for more than 30 years until yesterday, when his role was revealed in a Van- ity Fair magazine article. Even Nix- on was caught on tape speculating that Felt was an informer" as early as February 1973, at a time when Deep Throat was actively supplying confirmation and context for some of The Post's most explosive Wa- tergate stories. But Felt's repeated denials, and IT Bef MAR= — ASSOCIATED MESS W. Mark Felt, with daughter Joan, broke a three-decade silence about his involvement in bringing down the Nixon administration. See DEEP THROAT, A6, Cot 1 DEEP THROAT. From AI the stalwart silence of the reporters he aided — Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein — kept the cloak of mys- tery drawn up around Deep Throat. In place of a name and a face, the source acquired a magic and a mys- tique. He was the romantic truth teller The secrecy held through some half hidden in the shadows of a amazing twists of fate. In 1980, Felt Washington parking garage. This and another senior FBI veteran were image was rendered indelibly by the convicted of conspiring a decade dramatic best-selling memoir Wood- earlier to violate the civil rights of ward and Bernstein published in domestic dissidents in the Weather 1974, "All the President's Men." Underground movement; President Two years later, in a blockbuster Ronald Reagan then issued a par- movie by the same name, actor Hal don. Holbrook breathed whispery urgen- Yesterday, however, Vanity Fair cy into the suspenseful late-night en- released an article by a California counters between Woodward and lawyer named John D. O'Connor, his source. who was enlisted by Felt's daughter, For many Americans under 40, Joan Felt, to help coax her father this is the most potent distillation of into admitting his role in history. the complicated brew that was Wa- O'Connor's article quoted a number tergate. Students who lack the time of Felt's friends and family members or interest to follow each element of saying that he had shared his secret the scandal's slow unraveling quick- with them, and went on to say that ly digest the vivid relationship of a Felt told the author — under the nervous insider guiding a relentless shield of attorney-client privilege - reporter. As dramatic as those por- "I'm the guy they used to call Deep trayals were, they hewed closely to Throat." the truth, Woodward said. O'Connor wrote that he was re- "Mark Felt at that time was a leased from his obligation of secrecy dashing gray-haired figure," Wood- by Mark and Joan Felt. He also re- ward said, and his experience as an ported that the Felt family was not anti-Nazi spy hunter early in his ca- paid for cooperating with the Vanity reer at the FBI had endowed him Fair article, though they do hope the with a whole bag of counterintelli- sive intervention of a umainum. revelation will "make at least enough gence tricks. Felt dreamed up the U.S. Supreme Court. money to pay some bills," as Joan signal by which Woodward would "Felt's role in all this can be over- Felt is quoted in the magazine. summon him to a meeting (a flower- stated," said Bernstein, who went Woodward and others at The Post pot innocuously displayed on the re- on after Watergate to a career of were caught by surprise. Woodward porter's balcony) and also hatched books, magazine articles and televi- had known that Felt's family was the countersign by which Felt could sion investigations. "When we considering going public; in fact, contact Woodward (a clock face ink- wrote the book, we didn't think his they had talked repeatedly with ed on Page 20 of Woodward's daily role would achieve such mythical di- Woodward about the possibility of New York Times). mensions. You see there that Felt/ jointly writing a book to reveal the "He knew he was taking a monu- Deep Throat largely confirmed in- news. An e-mail from Felt's family mental risk," said Woodward, now formation we had already gotten over the Memorial Day weekend an assistant managing editor of The from other sources." continued to hold out the idea that Post whose catalogue of prizewin- Felt, 91 and enfeebled by a stroke, Woodward and Felt would disclose ning and best-selling work has been lives in California, his memory the secret together. built on the sort of confidential rela- dimmed. For decades. Woodward, Throughout those contacts, tionships be maintained with Deep Bernstein and Benjamin C. Bradlee, Woodward was dogged by reserva- Throat. Felt also knew, by firsthand The Post's executive editor during tions about Felt's mental condition, experience, that Nixon's adminis- the Watergate coverage, maintained he said yesterday, wondering wheth- tration was willing to use wiretaps that they would not disclose his er the source was competent to undo and break-ins to hunt down leakers, identity until after his death. "We've the long-standing pledge of ano- so no amount of caution was too kept that secret because we keep our nymity that bound them. great. word." Woodward said. Caught flatfooted by Vanity Fair's Indeed, the mystery came to ob- scure the many other elements that went into the Watergate story - other sources, other investigators, high-impact Senate hearings, a shocking trove of secret White House tape recordings, and the deci- announcement, Woodward and ing class at the University of Illinois Bernstein initially issued a terse compiled what professor Bill Gaines statement reaffirming their promise believed to be a definitive case that to keep the secret until Deep Throat Deep Throat was the deputy White died. But the Vanity Fair article was House counsel, Fred F. Fielding. enough to bring the current exec- Those findings were publicized utive editor of. The Post, Leonard around the world. Perhaps the most Downie Jr., back to Washington insightful argument was mustered in from a corporate retreat in Mary- the Atlantic magazine by journalist land. After consulting with Wood- Jim Mann in 1992. "He could well ward. Bernstein and Bradlee, "the have been Mark Felt," Mann wrote newspaper decided that the newspa- cautiously in a piece that laid bare per had been released from its obli- the institutional reasons why FBI gation by Mark Felt's family and by loyalists came to fear and resent Nix- his lawyer, through the publication on's presidency. of this piece," Downie said. "They Felt fended off the searchlight revealed him as the source. We con- each time it swung in his direction. firmed it." "I never leaked information to Downie praised Woodward's will- Woodward and Bernstein or to any- ingness to abide by his pledge even one else!" he wrote in his 1979 mem- while the Felt family was exploring oir. "The FBI Pyramid." "what many people would view as a scoop." "This demonstrates clearly the In an article being prepared for lengths to which Bob and this news- Thursday's Washington Post, Wood- paper will go to protect sources and ward will detail the "accident of his- a confidential relationship," Downie tory" that connected a young report- said. er fresh from the suburbs to a man Bradlee said he was amazed that whom many FBI agents considered the mystery had lasted through the the best choice to succeed the leg- decades. "What would you think the endary J. Edgar Hoover as director odds were that this town could keep of the bureau. Woodward and Felt that secret for this long?" he said. met by chance, he said, but their It wasn't for lack of sleuths. "Who friendship quickly became a source was Deep Throat?" has been among of information for the reporter. On the most compelling questions of May 15, 1972, presidential candi- modern American history, dissected date George Wallace was shot by a in books, in films, on the Internet, would-be assassin, Arthur H. Brem- and in thousands of articles and hun- er, on a parking lot in Laurel. dreds of television programs. Virtu- Eager to break news on a local sto- ally every figure in the Nixon admin- ry of major national importance, istration, from Henry A. Kissinger Woodward contacted Felt for in- to Patrick J. Buchanan to Diane formation on the FBI's investiga- Sawyer, has been nominated for the tion. Unlike many in the bureau, Felt role — sometimes by other Nixon was known to talk with reporters, veterans. Former White House coun- and he provided Woodward with a sel John W. Dean III, who tried to series of front-page nuggets - cover up Watergate on Nixon's in- though not with his name attached. structions and then gave crucial tes- By coincidence, the Bremer case timony about the scheme, was a fre- came two weeks after the death of quent contributor to the Hoover, an epochal moment for the speculation, as was another Nixon FBI, which had never been led by lawyer, Leonard Garment. anyone else. Felt wanted the job, he Recently, an investigative-report- later wrote. He also wanted his be- Washington Mystery Solved After Decades
loved bureau to maintain its in- phone wiretap. Felt had been sum- (D-S.D,), was having no luck mak- dependence. And so his motivations moned at least once to the White ing a campaign issue of Watergate. were complex when Woodward House, before Watergate, to discuss In the wee hours in a Washington called a month later seeking clues to the use of telephone surveillance area garage, Felt laid out a much the strange case of a burglary at the against administration leakers. He broader view of the scandal than Democratic National Committee soon concluded that his own phones Woodward and Bernstein had yet headquarters in the Watergate com- — and the reporters' — might be imagined. plex. Again, the young reporter had tapped. That's when he developed From the book: Woodward "ar- a local angle on a national story, be- the system of coded signals and rived at the garage at 1:30 a.m. cause the five alleged burglars were parking-garage encounters. "Deep Throat was already there, arraigned before a local judge. smoking a cigarette. . . . Wounded that he was passed over "On evenings such as these, Deep for the top job, furious at Nixon's The relationship immediately Throat had talked about how poli- choice of an outsider, Assistant At- bore fruit. On June 19, 1972, two tics had infiltrated every corner of torney General L. Patrick Gray III, days after the botched break-in, Felt government — a strong-arm take- determined that the White House assured Woodward that he could over of the agencies by the Nixon not be allowed to steer and stall the draw a connection between burglars White House. ... He had once FBI's Watergate investigation, and a former CIA agent with con- called it the 'switchblade mentality' Mark Felt slipped into the role that nections at the White House, E. — and had referred to the willing- would forever alter his life. Howard Hunt. Three months later, ness of the president's men to fight He makes his first appearance as he again provided key context and dirty and for keeps... . a literary figure in Chapter 4 of "All reassurance, telling Woodward that "The Nixon White House worried the President's Men." a story tying Nixon's campaign him. 'They are underhanded and un- "Woodward had a source in the committee to the break-in could be knowable,' he had said numerous Executive Branch who had access to "much stronger" and still be on sol- times. He also distrusted the press. information at [Nixon's campaign id ground. One of 'I don't like newspapers,' he had committee] as well as at the White the most impor- said flatly." House," Bernstein and Woodward tant encounters s Felt talked wrote. "Ills identity was unknown between Wood- through the to anyone else. He could be contact- ward and his night — of his ed only on very important occa- source came a love for gossip sions. Woodward had promised he month later, on and his compet- would never identify him or his po- Oct. 8, 1972. In ing his desire for sition to anyone." four months the exactitude — he Felt established extremely strict scandal had urged Woodward initial ground rules: He could never grown in its to follow the case be quoted — even as an anonymous reach but faded to the top: to Nix- source — and he would not provide in its seeming on's former attor- information. He would "confirm in- importance. Nix- ney general, John formation that had been obtained on was sailing to N. Mitchell, to elsewhere and .. . add some per- what would be a Nixon's inner spective," in the words of the book. landslide reelec- n-ace of aides, Initially, the two men spoke by tion and his op- J.R. "Bob" Halde- telephone, but Watergate was, after ponent, Sen nan and John H. all, a case that began with a tele- George McGoveri :,hrliehman, and
• even to Nixon himself. Watergate" and John N. Mitchell, the reelection chair- "Only the president and Mitchell man, denied any link. But over the next two years, the know" everything, he hinted. burglary metastasized into one of the biggest scandals That meeting and others gave se- and constitutional crises in modern U.S. history. nior Post editors the confidence they needed to stick with the story Ultimately, Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment, through withering fire from the ad- and more than 30 government and Republican cam- ministration and its defenders. Lat- paign officials were convicted of charges including er that month, at what Bradlee penury, burglary, wiretapping and obstruction of jus- called "the low point" of the saga, tice. Woodward and Bernstein misun- Nixon and his top aides attempted to cover up in- derstood a key detail of a major sto- ry linking Haldeman to the financ- volvement in the break-in and in other political dirty ing of Watergate and other dirty tricks and intelligence-gathering operations that were tricks. employed in the 1972 reelection victory over Demo- When Nixon's defenders — and cratic challenger George McGovern. While the media other media outlets — pounced on and members of Congress ignored or played down the The Post's mistake, Felt provided significance of the break-in, Bob Woodward and Carl both a scolding to Woodward that Bernstein, two young reporters on the metropolitan he must be more careful and the en- couragement that the reporters news staff of The Washington Post, doggedly pursued were still on the right track. leads that led to the highest levels of government. "He gave us encouragement," Woodward and Bernstein were greatly helped by Bernstein said yesterday. "Deep Throat," a confidential source who was privy to "And he gave Ben comfort," the details of the FBI investigation. Yesterday, it was Woodward added, although Bradlee revealed that "Deep Throat" was W. Mark Felt, the knew only Felt's status as a top FBI FBI's acting associate director at the time. The Post official. He did not learn Felt's name until after The Post had won the Pu- published remarkable findings — that a $25,000 litzer Prize for its Watergate cover- cashier's check earmarked for the Nixon campaign age and Nixon had resigned. wound up in the bank account of one of the burglars; Woodward's source became such that Mitchell, while serving as attorney general, con- a key part of the discussion among trolled a secret fund for intelligence operations against top editors that then-Managing Edi- the Democrats: and that John D. Ehrlichman, a top Nix- tor Howard Simons gave him a nick- name, "Deep Throat," a blend of the on aide, supervised covert actions of a special unit rules of engagement Felt had with known as the Plumbers that burglarized the office of Woodward — "deep background" the psychiatrist of Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pen- — and the title of a notorious por- tagon Papers. nographic movie. Within months of Nixon's landslide victory, his ad- When the book and then the mov- ministration and career began to unravel. On Jan. 30, ie were released, Woodward said, 1973, Liddy and James W. McCord Jr., a former CIA Felt was shocked to have his place in history tagged with such a tawdry employee and chief of security for Nixon's reelection title. campaign, were convicted of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping in the Watergate incident. White House Chief of Staff H.R. "Bob" Haldeman, Ehrlichman and Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst resigned on April 30. The Senate Watergate committee began Now Watergate Unfolded televised hearings in May. The following month, The Post reported that former White House counsel John It began with a bungled burglary of the Democratic W. Dean III told Watergate investigators he had dis- National Committee headquarters at the Watergate cussed the cover-up with Nixon at least 35 times, and complex early on the morning of June 17, 1972, and Alexander P. Butterfield, former presidential appoint- the arrest of five suspects. A security guard named ments secretary, testified to the Senate panel in July Frank Willis had discovered tape-covered door latches that Nixon secretly taped his conversations and tele- in a Watergate stairwell and had called the police. phone calls from 1971 on. Two of the five suspects arrested possessed ad- Nixon's firing of Watergate special prosecutor Ar- dress books with the entries "W. House" and "W.H.." chibald Cox on Oct. 20 — which triggered the resigna- scribblings that quickly linked them to two shadowy tion of Attorney General Elliot L. Richardson and his figures: E. Howard Hunt, a onetime CIA agent who had deputy — and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling on recently worked in the Nixon administration White July 24, 1974. telling Nixon to surrender 64 tape re- House, and G. Gordon Liddy, a former FBI agent who cordings, hastened the president's demise. was on the payroll of the Committee for the Reelection With the House bearing down on him and moving of the President. Richard M. Nixon's campaign organi- toward approval of three articles of impeachment, zation. Nixon announced his resignation on Aug, 8, 1974. Nixon dismissed the break-in as "that pipsqueak — Eric Pianin fir SAII4Lk1111 FRP 1-0k 'NE WASHINGION POST Bernstein, left, with Woodward, said of Felt, "We didn't think his role would achieve such mythical dimensions." v._