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CNN Live At Daybreak

John Dean Says He is Ready to Name Identity of Deep Throat

Aired May 01, 2002 - 05:25   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Think back 30 years to the Watergate era in Washington. Former White House Counsel John Dean now says he is ready to name the identity of Deep Throat, the informant who helped end the Nixon presidency. You may recall Dean tried twice before to name Deep Throat and was apparently wrong.

Now comes his third try, as CNN's Bruce Morton reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRUCE MORTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They met, Woodward and Bernstein wrote, in parking garages probably much like this one. And the source they called Deep Throat whispered hints. Here's how it went in the movie.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just follow the money.

MORTON: They did follow it and found that the Watergate burglars had been paid with cash donated to Richard Nixon's Committee to Reelect the President, universally called CREEP. The reporters have never said who Deep Throat was, only that he was a man, not a composite, a smoker -- many were back then, a scotch drinker, fond of gossip.

John Dean, who now says he knows the truth, once thought it was Nixon Chief of Staff Alexander Haig. Woodward said it wasn't back when Haig ran for president in 1988. Said it wasn't FBI Chief L. Patrick Gray when a CBS News documentary named him. Said it wasn't former Nixon staffer John Sears when another former staffer, Leonard Garment, names Sears in his book. One Nixon supporter claimed it was TV's Diane Sawyer, but nobody believed him.

So now will we know?

Dean will just be guessing. Only Woodward, Bernstein, then "Washington Post" editor Ben Bradlee and "Throat" himself know for sure. Henry Kissinger, ex-FBI man Mark Felt, it's almost the only secret Washington's ever kept. And the most interesting thing about it is that we're still fascinated, not by "Throat" so much as by the man whose presidency "Throat" helped end. Richard Nixon, hater, detente seeker, the man of a thousand faces.

PRES. RICHARD NIXON: I'm not a crook.

MORTON: Deep Throat could be your grandmother. The heart, the character of Richard Milhouse Nixon, man, there's a mystery.

Bruce Morton, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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