Deep Throat's lawyer speaks at SF luncheon By MATT KAPKO Bay City News Service June 28, 2005 SAN FRANCISCO The world could have known who Deep Throat was many years ago, if publishers hadn't been so hesitant to publish the story, John O'Connor said today. Four weeks ago, O'Connor named Mark Felt, the former FBI No. 2 man, as Deep Throat in a Vanity Fair article, but he'd been trying to get the story printed much before then, he said today. O'Connor is Felt's lawyer and he's been keeping Felt's secret for many years. O'Connor shed some light on his revelation at a San Francisco Bar Association luncheon discussion today in San Francisco with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Joan Ryan. Felt met in secret with Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in the early 70s and leaked information to him that implicated former President Richard Nixon in a break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in Washington D.C. Nixon eventually resigned because of the scandal. As Felt and his family wrestled over the decision to out himself as Deep Throat, O'Connor was involved in tense negotiations with publishers from numerous media organizations. "There was a lot of fear in journalism circles in publishing this,'' O'Connor said. "All the publishers have a fear of circumstantial evidence.'' During those years, Felt went back-and-forth on his decision to come forward, O'Connor said. "In fact, my client was deeply conflicted over this, but not because he was confused,'' O'Connor said of the 91-year old. "It wasn't as though Mark doesn't know who he is.'' Once Felt's family convinced him that his actions were heroic and that the court of public opinion would rule heavily in his favor, his fears were allayed and he was at peace with ending the 30-year secret, O'Connor said. "He's his own man, he makes his own decisions,'' he said. "He came to understand himself as a hero.'' O'Connor described Felt as a highly principled, morally astute and loyal man. "He didn't like the act itself,'' he said. "I don't think he ever really had moral problems with it. I think there's a difference between what he thought was right and what he thought didn't look good.'' Felt's fears about coming clean have been put at ease, O'Connor said. "Mark's on top of the world right now. He thinks he's won. He's lived his whole life seeking nothing but honor. He wanted the honor and glory of doing a good job for the country. This is a tremendous redemption for him,'' he said. "Had it not been for Watergate, I think we would've had a different culture,'' he said. Home