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Reagan pardoned felt for illegal raids on peace groups { June 13 1997 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/fbi.htmhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/watergate/fbi.htm
The FBI Theory
By Lisa Todorovich
washingtonpost.com
Friday, June 13, 1997
Woodward and Bernstein's Watergate coverage seemed to parallel the FBI's own investigation, leading some within the bureau to suspect that Deep Throat was an FBI official. In an article published in the May 1992 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, former Washington Post reporter James Mann said he remembered Woodward talking about a "friend at the FBI." Mann pointed out that FBI investigators not only worked with Justice Department prosecutors but had access to information from the White House and the Committee for the Re-election of the President (CRP).
A possible FBI motive, according to Mann, was the desire of the bureau to protect itself from criticism and stave off White House interference. Exposing the White House's cover-up efforts would have accomplished both goals.
One suspect is L. Patrick Gray, a Justice Department official appointed by President Nixon to be acting director of the FBI in 1972 upon J. Edgar Hoover's death. Barely a month into Gray's tenure at the bureau, the Watergate burglars were arrested. A documentary entitled "Watergate: The Secret Story," co-produced in 1992 by CBS News and The Washington Post, calls Gray the prime suspect, saying that he not only fits Woodward and Bernstein's Deep Throat description, but also was the only one of the possible suspects who could have met with Woodward on the pertinent dates. The documentary also pointed out that Gray and Woodward lived four blocks from one another and thus could have easily met.
Gray, who had been working closely with White House counsel John W. Dean III, canceled an FBI interview with lawyer Miguel Ogarrio, saying it could hurt a CIA operation in Mexico. According to Mann, checks in Ogarrio's name totaling $89,000 had been deposited in the bank account of one of the Watergate burglars. Nixon and H.R. Haldeman, the White House chief of staff, had ordered CIA Deputy Director Vernon Walters to keep the FBI's investigation out of Mexico.
In his article, Mann said three FBI officials confronted Gray and protested what they saw as the White House's interference with the bureau's Watergate probe. They were W. Mark Felt, FBI deputy associate director (and known by reporters as someone willing to take their calls); Charles W. Bates, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's general investigative division; and Robert Kunkel, the special agent in charge of the Washington, D.C., field office. Mann identified all three as Deep Throat suspects.
A year after he became acting director, Gray withdrew his name from Senate consideration to be permanent director. He resigned from the bureau on April 27, 1973. Gray, Felt and another FBI official, Edward S. Miller, were indicted in 1978 for approving other break-ins during the Nixon administration. They were charged with authorizing raids without warrants in search of members of a radical anti-war group, the Weather Underground.
The government dropped the charges against Gray, and President Reagan pardoned Felt and Miller after their convictions in 1980. Gray is currently a partner in a law firm in New London, Conn., and Mark Felt has retired from the bureau.
Charles Bates's position in the FBI's general investigative division made him a supervisor in the investigations into D.C. police corruption and the shooting of Alabama Gov. George Wallace as well as Watergate. According to the Atlantic piece, Woodward had tapped an FBI source to help him with a story on Wallace, who was shot in Maryland while campaigning in the presidential primaries. However, Bates moved to the FBI's San Francisco field office in the midst of the Watergate probe and, therefore, may be an unlikely Deep Throat.
Robert Kunkel, Mann wrote, was not as likely a suspect, as Gray moved him to the St. Louis field office during Watergate.
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