Deep Throat ‘took monumental risk’

Victoria Ward, New York

The revelation of the Watergate informer’s identity solved a mystery that has captivated America for more than three decades.

As news of his identity broke, Mr Felt, 91, stood at his front door in Santa Rosa, California, and grinned as he leaned on a walking frame.

His family asked the media to respect his privacy “in view of his age and health”.

His daughter Joan said he was relieved to finally tell the truth and said the family was “very proud” of him.

Washington Post journalists Woodward and Carl Bernstein said in a statement: “Mark Felt was Deep Throat and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage.” Mr Woodward, now assistant managing editor at the newspaper said: “Mark Felt at that time was a dashing grey-haired figure. We’ve kept that secret because we keep our word. He knew he was taking a monumental risk.”

Mr Woodward is preparing an extended article for publication in today’s Post.

Deep Throat became the most famous political source in history after leaking secrets about Nixon’s Watergate cover-up in the early 1970s, when Mr Felt was second in command at the FBI.

Mr Nixon, facing impeachment for helping to cover up the break-in, resigned in August, 1974. Forty government officials and members of his re-election committee were convicted on felony charges. Mr Felt’s family urged the US to honour his actions.

In a statement, his grandson Nick Jones said Mr Felt was pleased he was being honoured for his role as Deep Throat, alongside his friend, Mr Woodward.

“We hope you see him as worthy of honour and respect as we do,” he added.

Yesterday, the question of whether Mr Felt was more hero or turncoat had the current White House hoping to keep its distance.

“It’s hard for me to judge,” President George W Bush said, adding that the revelation caught him by surprise.

“A lot of us have always wondered who Deep Throat might have been,” Mr Bush said.

But aides to the late Mr Nixon have said Mr Felt breached professional ethics by leaking information.

G Gordon Liddy, a Nixon operative who engineered the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Campaign headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington, and served four-and-a-half years in jail, said Mr Felt “violated the ethics of the law enforcement profession”.

“If he possessed evidence of wrongdoing, he was honour-bound to take that to a grand jury and secure an indictment, not selectively leak it to a single news source,” he said.