Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House Page #5

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You hated her.

Mothers don't hate their daughters.

It's just not always easy being one.

You dressed her up like a doll,

until she got old enough

to look just like you.

Mark.

You kept telling her to get out

until one day she listened to you.

Listen to me.

I had no mother.

But she did.

Yes.

She did.

My father just left.

So, yes, she gave me up

to foster homes,

then the orphanage.

- But you know all about that, don't you?

- Yeah.

Then I made my own way.

Until you.

My white knight.

Our homes are the only homes I've ever known.

You were both mine.

GRAY:
How's home, Mark?

Why are you asking?

That daughter of yours, Jill?

Joan.

Well, I hear she's terrific.

Fulbright scholar, first girl in the country.

A chip off the old block.

I want you to be the first

to hear my statement to the press.

"No pressure has been put on me

"or any of my special agents

in the FBI's investigation

"and that it strains..." I thought

I would just nip this in the bud.

"It strains credulity that President Nixon

"could have done a con job

on the whole American people."

What do you think?

It's just fine.

KUNKEL:
The Democrats

have issued a statement this morning.

"The FBI's Watergate investigation

is a whitewash.

"What is involved here is not only

the political life of this nation

"but the very morality of our leaders

"at a time when the United States

desperately needs to revitalize

"its moral standards."

"The FBI's Watergate investigation

"is a whitewash."

That's it.

Well, gentlemen.

Here's what we know.

We know what we've heard

out of the Department of Justice

the past two days is bullshit.

We know the men who broke into the Watergate

are not the end of this thing,

but the beginning.

We know this is the latest link

in a chain of illegal,

covert intelligence operations

by the president's re-election campaign.

We know we are facing obstruction

from multiple fronts.

From the White House.

From the CIA.

From the Attorney General

of the United States,

who is our boss, by the way.

It is not our job to speculate

on the involvement of the president.

It is our job to follow the bread crumbs.

But those bread crumbs appear to be taking us

on a tour of the West Wing

of the White House,

and in the general direction

of the Oval Office.

We also know we've been ordered

to shut down our pursuit of all this

as of today.

And we know that except

for the 30 men in this room,

no one in the entire country

knows any of this

and may never know any of this.

No one can stop the driving force

of an FBI investigation.

Not even the FBI.

MARK:
Segretti.

I'm going to give you the name of a man

who was asked to work

for the Nixon administration

in an unusual way.

What are you talking about?

There's only one way to understand

what Watergate really means,

and this is it.

The name

is Alex Shipley.

Shipley.

He lives in Nashville.

The man who approached him

was a lawyer out of LA

named Donald Segretti.

Segretti.

Shipley can tell you everything

you need to know.

Will Shipley talk?

I guess you're going

to have to find that out.

One more thing.

This comes from classified FBI files.

The Department of Justice has it,

the White House has it,

and, now, you have it.

REPORTER 1:
Let's just get on

with the election and stop this nonsense

about there having been

a political espionage campaign

against the Democrats.

REPORTER 2:
Here's what's making

the news at the top of the hour.

North Vietnamese military attempts

to break through South Vietnamese lines

have been met with an intense

bombing attack by a US aircraft.

General Creighton Abrams,

the United States commander in Vietnam,

ordered every available B-52

into the northern sector of South Vietnam.

REPORTER 3:
Though baseball season is over,

the Philadelphia Phils went to

the Ozarks for a new manager today.

Los Angeles coach Danny Ozark

was the surprise choice

of Phils' general manager, Paul Owens.

Ozark has had no big league

managerial experience...

MARK:
Mr. Woodward.

The story isn't moving.

Everyone stopped listening to you.

This isn't the same as before.

We're lost in detail.

That's their plan.

They want everyone confused.

Confusion is control.

The truth could ruin the administration.

How high?

How high does it go?

MARK:
You still don't understand

what I'm giving you.

This is dangerous stuff you're playing with.

Especially, if it's known

before November 7th.

That's election day.

You put out the right story,

the public will scream.

The Attorney General

will have to let me keep going.

My editors know that I'm talking to somebody,

but not who.

They don't ask.

No one understands

how one person knows so much.

No one can possibly know how much I know.

With all this mystery,

there's a nickname for you at the paper.

- Deep Throat.

- What?

They didn't know what else to call you.

That's just...

They shouldn't have to call me anything.

Take out your notebook. There's more.

AUDREY:
"FBI agents have established

Watergate bugging incident,

"massive campaign

of political spying and sabotage.

"'There is some very powerful information, '

"said one federal official,

"'especially if it's known

before election day."'

REPORTER:
The White House

is vigorously denouncing a story

in The Washington Post this morning

accusing the administration

of engaging in a secret political war.

REPORTER 2:
White House Press Secretary

Ron Ziegler is calling the story

a pack of scurrilous lies and innuendo.

REPORTER 1:
Based on baseless,

cowardly sources

inside the Department of Justice.

GRAY:
He's here, Mark. He has to be.

There's a spy in the FBI.

"FBI agents have established..."

"One federal investigative official said..."

"According to FBI reports..."

That's us, God damn it.

There is information in here

that the bureau only got 72 hours ago.

Are you goddamn joking?

Mr. Felt,

you had something you wanted to say.

The last few days, I've heard various people

accuse Mr. Lano of leaking to the press.

- You've got to be kidding me!

- Him?

And that he and certain newspaper reporters

- have been seen together.

- I'm going to be sick.

I wanted to say to you, Mr. Lano,

in front of everyone here

that I know these are

vicious lies by jealous agents.

You're doing a fine job, and no matter what,

the director and I will support you.

Mr. Gray.

GRAY:
I may not be an FBI lifer

like some of you.

I'm certainly no Mark Felt.

Since I arrived here,

I have put up with paranoia,

insubordination, second-guessing.

Gentlemen, it's come to Jesus time.

Whoever the leaker is,

whoever is the Judas among you,

betraying me,

the other good men in this room,

his family, God,

not to mention the bureau

and the legacy of J. Edgar Hoover,

step forward.

Right here, right now.

Charlie, we got an office pool

on who the leak is.

My money's on you.

KUNKEL:
It's just one big game, Charlie.

We're all just chess pieces.

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