Ex-FBI chief: I was deep throat
The FBI’s former number two, W Mark Felt, has claimed to have been the mystery Deep Throat source who helped bring down US president Richard Nixon.
Felt, 91, told Vanity Fair magazine: “I’m the guy they used to call Deep Throat.”
Lawyer John O’Connor, who wrote the article, said Felt had revealed he was the source who leaked secrets about Nixon’s Watergate cover-up.
Felt is now retired and living in Santa Rosa, California, with his daughter Joan, according to O'Connor.
Following decades of secrecy, he said he decided to write the article after witnessing the decline of Felt’s health and mental acuity and having got permission from both him and his daughter.
Felt’s family has no idea about his secret identity until 2002 when his close friend Yvette La Garde told Joan he had confided to her that he had been Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s source, the magazine reports.
In statements released to CNN, both Washington Post reporters Woodward and Carl Bernstein refused to corroborate or deny the claims.
“As in the past we are not going to say anything about this,” Bernstein said.
“We have said all along that when that person dies we will reveal his identity.”
Felt initially denied it when confronted by his daughter but when she explained La Garde’s disclosure, he reportedly replied: “Since that’s the case, well, yes I am.”
