"Deep Throat" part 2

[Stan Switek]

Seems the "hero" is also a perjurer.


WASHINGTON - A new book about "Deep Throat" by Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward says W.
Mark Felt denied being the Watergate source during a 1976 grand jury appearance, according to USA Today.

The book, "The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat," says Felt hastily withdrew his denial when a Justice Department official reminded him he was under oath, according to the newspaper, which said it obtained a copy from a Virginia bookstore that mistakenly put copies out for sale.

The book is due in stores next Wednesday.

According to USA Today, the book says Woodward suspected that someone at the Post was leaking information about his sources to the Nixon White House. No leaker was found.

The book also identifies the garage where Woodward and Felt, a high-ranking
FBI official, conducted their clandestine late-night meetings. The garage is "behind and underneath" 1401 Wilson Boulevard in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Va., Woodward wrote.

In the grand jury incident, Woodward wrote that Felt's actions enabled the Justice Department official who was questioning him to realize that he had been "Deep Throat."

A grand juror asked whether Felt was "Deep Throat" and Felt replied, "No."

The Justice Department official, Stanley Pottinger, offered to have the question and answer withdrawn as being outside the bounds of the investigation, after reminding Felt that he had sworn to tell the truth.

"Flushed," Woodward writes, "Felt very rapidly requested, 'Withdraw the question.'"

Pottinger did not reveal what he had figured out because he did not think it appropriate to divulge a reporter's confidential source, Woodward wrote.

Woodward wrote that Felt was motivated by a desire to protect the FBI, disgust with the Nixon White House, reverence for former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the thrill of "the game."

[savage4presiden]

Seems the "hero" is also a perjurer.

Woodward wrote that Felt was motivated by a desire to protect the FBI, disgust with the Nixon White House, reverence for former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the thrill of "the game."

Great. Just what we need. Agents who are along for a joy ride.

[Stonie]

We can MMQB all we want, but at the time there was zero legal protection for whistleblowers (this came about after Watergate) and Felt had been working his way up the FBI bureaucracy for decades only to be stopped short from the top job because Nixon appointed one of his cronies as part of his attempt to do damage control. Of course he hated Nixon for it. Wouldn't you?

Do you honestly think Felt's new boss (appointed by Nixon, therefore loyal to Nixon) would have taken FBI evidence of Nixon's wrongdoing to a federal grand jury? Yeah, right.

Great. Just what we need. Agents who are along for a joy ride.

Heh, that's oversimplifying it a bit.

I don't think he's a hero because his motivations were personal, but we do need people within the government to hold higher powers accountable and stand up for what's right, even if doing right may be illegal.

Would you protect an informant if he had hard evidence of wrongdoing & cover-ups by your chief of police? There's no clear answer to that because it's an ethical dilemma and the circumstances dictate the response.

[Stan Switek]

Do you honestly think Felt's new boss (appointed by Nixon, therefore loyal to Nixon) would have taken FBI evidence of Nixon's wrongdoing to a federal grand jury? Yeah, right.

Here is a novel concept. Wait for the investigation to be completed & see what happens. If there is evidence of a crime & it is covered up, then go to the press. You don't leak during an open active investigation & you dont commit perjury.

[Stonie]

Here is a novel concept. Wait for the investigation to be completed & see what happens. If there is evidence of a crime & it is covered up, then go to the press. You don't leak during an open active investigation & you dont commit perjury.

I agree with you on both points, but this was a truly exceptional case at the time.

Here's something you may not know -- the investigators were Nixon's cronies too.

Nixon was appointing people loyal to him left, right, up, and down in an attempt to cover up relatively minor wrongdoing, and in doing so committed majorly illegal abuses of his executive power. There is extensive evidence of this in the White House tapes.

In the aftermath of Watergate, the concept of independent counsel to conduct investigation was written into policy. Kenneth Starr was an example of that.

In any case I think I read somewhere that Felt will be brought up on perjury charges.