DEEP THROAT….Via CapitolBuzz, John O’Connor writes in Vanity Fair this month that he knows the identity of Watergate leaker Deep Throat. No, it’s not Ben Stein. It’s former FBI deputy director Mark Felt, one of the guys who’s been on the list of prime suspects for a long time. O’Connor reports that he’s talked at length to Felt, to Bob Woodward, and to Felt’s daughter, Joan ? who, O’Connor says, learned the truth a couple of years ago:
Joan then confronted her father, who initially denied it. ?I know now that you?re Deep Throat,? she remembers telling him….His response: ?Since that?s the case, well, yes, I am.? Then and there, she pleaded with him to announce his role immediately so that he could have some closure, and accolades, while he was still alive. Felt reluctantly agreed, then changed his mind. He seemed determined to take his secret with him to the grave.
….[Later,] Felt had come to an interim decision: he would ?cooperate,? but only with the assistance of Bob Woodward. Acceding to his wishes, Joan and I spoke to Woodward by phone on a half-dozen occasions over a period of months about whether to make a joint revelation, possibly in the form of a book or an article. Woodward would sometimes begin these conversations with a caveat, saying, more or less, ?Just because I?m talking to you, I?m not admitting that he is who you think he is.? Then he?d express his chief concerns, which were twofold, as I recall. First, was this something that Joan and I were pushing on Felt, or did he actually want to reveal himself of his own accord? (I interpreted this to mean: was he changing the long-standing agreement the men had kept for three decades?) Second, was Felt actually in a clear mental state?
Read the whole thing. It’s not quite open and shut, but it’s pretty damn close.
UPDATE: Sorry about the unintentional demotion of Felt in the original post. It’s been fixed. Thanks to Jim in comments for the correction.
UPDATE 2: Woodward and Bernstein have now confirmed that Felt was Deep Throat.
