'Deep Throat' Probably Won't Be Prosecuted

'Deep Throat' Probably Won't Be Prosecuted

Fri Jun 3, 6:11 PM ET

NEW YORK - The former FBI man unmasked as "Deep Throat" probably won't be prosecuted for sharing information with reporters during the Watergate scandal, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicated Friday.

"It happened a long time ago," Gonzales said of W. Mark Felt's conduct 30 years ago, when he was the No. 2 man at the FBI. "The department has a lot of other priorities."

Gonzales declined to characterize Felt as either hero or villain.

"I will leave it to history to make that determination," he said, echoing comments by President Bush, who has also refrained from saying what he thinks of Felt.

Felt, now 91, provided critical tips about criminal wrongdoing at the White House to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward during the Watergate scandal.

It is unclear whether he broke any laws in doing so, but some former members of the Nixon administration have said the information he revealed was confidential.

Felt's identity was kept secret until Tuesday, when he revealed in a Vanity Fair article he was the shadowy Nixon administration insider dubbed "Deep Throat" by a Post editor.

Gonzales' Justice Department is overseeing an investigation into who gave the name of an undercover CIA officer to journalists. The case has led to court rulings viewed by some as having made it more difficult for reporters to conceal the identity of their confidential sources.