Conflicted And Mum For Decades

In doing so, they relied heavily on a man they described in their 1974 memoir, "All the President's Men," as "a source in the Executive Branch who had access to information at [the Nixon reelection effort] . . . as well as at the White House. He could be contacted only on very important occasions" and asked to confirm information learned elsewhere and provide "perspective." In print, the duo attributed their information only to "sources close to the Watergate investigation."

The leaks infuriated the White House, which pressured Gray into interrogating all the field agents -- an act that Felt said had sowed wide resentment. "Numerous times, when Gray was out of the city, John Dean called me, demanding that . . . steps be taken to silence the leakers," Felt wrote. "I refused to take such action and frequently I was able to point out to him that some of the leaks could not possibly have come from the bureau."

White House officials suspected Felt was leaking to The Post as early as October 1972. According to an account written five years ago by Chase Culeman-Beckman, who contended that Bernstein's son had told him Felt was Deep Throat, Nixon, Haldeman and Dean were speculating about Felt during one of the sessions tape-recorded in the White House.

"Is he Catholic?" Nixon asked. Told by Haldeman that Felt was Jewish, Nixon replied, "[Expletive], [the bureau] put a Jew in there?" To which Haldeman responded, "Well, that could explain it."

Contrary to their belief, Felt is not Jewish.

On Feb. 28, 1973, Nixon and Dean again tagged Felt as the potential leaker. He was, Dean told Nixon, "the only person that knows" such details. But Nixon was skeptical. No one would risk his career to become an informant.

According to a tape recording from that day, Nixon said, "You know, suppose that Felt comes out and unwraps the whole thing? What does that do to him? . . . He's in a very dangerous situation. . . . The informer is not wanted in our society. Either way, that's the one thing people do sort of line up against. They . . . say, 'Well, that [expletive] informed. I don't want him around.' "

Gray was never confirmed as FBI director, and in 1973 William D. Ruckelshaus was nominated to replace him. Felt clashed repeatedly with his new boss and left the bureau later that year, well before Nixon was to leave office.

In 1978 he was indicted, along with Edward G. Miller, for nine illegal break-ins in New York and New Jersey carried out in 1972 and 1973. When he was arraigned, several hundred FBI agents showed up at the courthouse in a sign of solidarity. The two maintained they had operated within the law but were convicted in 1980. In April 1981, Reagan pardoned both men, saying they had served the country with "great distinction."

In his memoir, Felt acknowledged speaking once to Woodward, but in that book and whenever else he was asked, he denied being Deep Throat. In 1999, Felt denied it again to the Hartford Courant after there was another suggestion that he was Deep Throat.

"I would have done better," he told the paper. "I would have been more effective." That summer, Felt told Slate's Tim Noah it would have been contrary to his responsibilities at the FBI to leak information.

On the day of his conviction in 1980, Felt spoke to reporters outside the courthouse to express his disappointment with the verdict. "I spent my entire adult life working for the government, and I always tried to do what I thought was right and what was in the best interest of this country and what would protect the safety of this country," he said.

Looking back after yesterday's revelation, that quotation may express one of the motivations that led this otherwise unlikely public servant to engage in the surreptitious actions that led to Nixon's political demise.

Researchers Meg Smith, Madonna Lebling and Magda Jean-Louis contributed to this report.