Letter to the Editor: In Defense of Mark Felt
The following was originally published in The Wall Street Journal. Read it HERE.
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Dear Editor:
As pertains to Andrew McCabe and my client, Mark Felt, more contrast than comparison is in order.
McCabe strangled an appropriate FBI investigation for political purposes, then leaked for personal aggrandizement. Felt leaked to prevent the politically-motivated shut-down of an appropriate investigation, keeping his identity secret for thirty years, while forsaking millions he could have garnered.
Around June 21, 1972, FBI Director Patrick Gray ordered his FBI agents to complete the Watergate investigation in 72 hours. A Felt call to Time Magazine’s Sandy Smith yielded by design his inquiry to Gray, who thereupon lifted his restraint, while angrily castigating his agents for leaking.
The notion that Felt was leaking to discredit Gray is absurd, and contradicted by strong incontrovertible evidence, author Max Holland notwithstanding.
If Mark Felt had been a senior FBI official in recent years, we would likely be witnessing a prosecution of individuals associated with the Clinton Foundation.
Watergate, alas, had the perverse effect of creating weaving political spiders like James Comey and Andrew McCabe.
John D. O'Connor
San Francisco, Apr. 7, 2018
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John D. O’Connor is the San Francisco attorney who represented W. Mark Felt during his revelation as Deep Throat in 2005. O’Connor is the author of the book, Postgate: How the Washington Post Betrayed Deep Throat, Covered Up Watergate, and Began Today’s Partisan Advocacy Journalism.