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Watergate's 'Deep Throat' Dead at 95
W. Mark Felt was secret source who helped expose Richard Nixon's abuses of power
By Rob Quinn
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Posted Dec 19, 08 3:18 AM CST
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(Newser)
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The FBI agent who helped bring down Richard Nixon has died at his California home at the age of 95, the New York Times reports. W. Mark Felt was "Deep Throat"—the anonymous source who supplied crucial leads to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward about White House abuses of power, setting in motion the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's resignation.
Felt, who was the second-in-command at the FBI at the time, was infuriated by what he saw as efforts by Nixon to use the bureau for political purposes, and rejected orders not to investigate the White House-ordered 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters. He set up covert meetings with Woodward using tactics he had learned rooting out Nazi spies in the US during WWII. Felt decided to unmask himself in 2005 after over 30 years of secrecy.