Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House Page #7

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MARK:
It was before your time.

Tell the truth.

No one can argue with the truth.

SENATOR:
Mr. Gray, this Time magazine

article by Sandy Smith

contains information on alleged wiretaps

requested by the White House

installed by the FBI.

How do you respond to these charges?

It was before my time, Senator.

What about the assertion in this article

that a White House aide

slipped Donald Segretti,

a target of the bureau's

Watergate investigation,

copies of what the FBI had?

We didn't look into that.

- Why on Earth not?

- I'll have to look into that.

SENATOR:
Did you know that the White

House had your confidential file?

I did. Yes, Senator.

Let me tell you how that might have happened.

SENATOR:
Please do.

GRAY:
White House counsel John Dean told me

the White House wanted everything

the FBI had on Watergate

to help with its own investigation.

Mr. Dean took all those FBI files.

SENATOR:
How many Bureau reports

are we talking about?

How many reports did you give Mr. Dean?

I believe it was 82.

As the acting director of the FBI,

why on Earth would you do that?

- Because I was told to.

- SENATOR:
By who?

Who would have ordered that?

(CLEARS THROAT)

- The president.

- (ALL CHATTERING)

NIXON:
One of the most difficult

decisions of my presidency,

I accepted the resignations

of two of my closest associates

in the White House,

Bob Haldeman and John Ehrlichman.

The counsel to the president,

John Dean, has also resigned.

REPORTER:
The nation tonight

is in the midst of what may be

the most critical constitutional crisis

in its history.

As a result of the president's action,

the Attorney General has resigned.

REPORTER 2:
L. Patrick Gray,

head of the FBI for nearly a year,

will now never take the chair

occupied by J. Edgar Hoover.

REPORTER 3:
John Dean told me,

during a conversation,

that the White House masterminded a cover-up.

DEAN:
I began by telling the president

that there was a cancer growing

on the presidency,

that it was important this cancer

be removed immediately

because it was growing more deadly every day.

MARK:
I found Joan.

Let's go get her.

Oh, my God. It's my parents.

It's all right. I know.

Mark?

Dad.

This is your grandson.

Come here, sweetheart.

There we go.

(SIGHS)

I had this feeling when I was little,

that I couldn't see into his eyes,

that he didn't approve of me.

That he was holding me up

to some impossible standard.

That was me.

When you were sick and you were little,

it was your father

who climbed into bed with you

in his shoes,

his holster, his suit.

He'd sit with you for hours

and rock you till you fell back asleep.

MARK:
Oh! Look at that big baby. (CHUCKLES)

(CHATTERING INDISTINCTLY)

Thank you.

- MAN:
Mr. Director? We're ready.

- Mr. Felt.

- Mark.

- Mr. Ruckelshaus.

Thank you.

Mr. Felt, thank you for 31 years of service

to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

- Thank you.

- ALL:
Hear, hear!

(SCATTERED APPLAUSE)

Congratulations.

(APPLAUSE)

- MAN 2:
Hey, congratulations.

- MAN 3:
Good luck, Mark.

WOMAN:
Well done, Mark.

WOMAN 2:
Congratulations, sir.

NIXON:
I have never been a quitter.

To leave office before my term is completed

is abhorrent to every instinct in my body.

But as president,

I must put the interests of America first.

Therefore,

I shall resign the presidency

effective at noon tomorrow.

Vice President Ford,

will be sworn in as president

at that hour, in this office.

STAN POTTINGER:
Counterespionage expert.

Nazi hunter.

You, Mr. Felt, are the G-man's G-man,

a hero and a patriot,

and we are a grateful nation.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the past few weeks

you've heard through testimony

the sounds of the bombs

of the PLO and the Weather Underground

ringing in your ears.

People died.

We were a nation at war at home and abroad.

We don't dispute that.

Now, we ask you to listen

for the sound of the Constitution.

You hear that?

It doesn't make quite as much noise

as a bomb, does it?

It just sits there, silent,

like our conscience,

just as it's done for the last 200 years.

Mr. Felt.

On September 8th, 1972,

did you order 143 FBI agents

across the country

to break into the homes of relatives

of alleged members

of the Weather Underground,

to wiretap their phones and bug their homes?

- Yes.

- Who else?

Who else what?

Who else participated in giving those orders?

- Assistant Director Edward Miller?

- I gave the order.

Acting Director L. Patrick Gray the third?

MARK:
I gave the order.

Charles Bates?

You're really gonna sit there and do that?

You're really gonna take that on

for everybody?

I gave the order.

POTTINGER:
Mr. Felt, you stated that you

frequently briefed

the Nixon White House on the case.

Maybe you could just give us

a quick snapshot on how that all worked.

I was in constant contact

with the White House on many matters.

In fact, I was in the Oval Office so often,

people used to say I had to be Deep Throat.

What did you just say?

I said I was with the White House,

Dean and so forth, so often,

people thought I was The Washington

Post's source for Watergate.

The person they called, "Deep Throat."

Before the witness is excused,

are there any questions from the jury?

JUROR:
Well, were you?

- Was I what?

- JUROR:
Were you Deep Throat?

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