Woodward: Deep Throat tried to protect FBI

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WASHINGTON, June 30 (UPI) -- Former FBI official Mark Felt was trying to protect the bureau when he leaked Watergate secrets, the Washington Post's Bob Woodward writes in a new book.

Woodward, whose reporting with Carl Bernstein helped expose a criminal conspiracy within President Richard Nixon's administration, says Felt also was motivated by disgust with the White House reverence for former FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and the thrill of "the game," USA Today reported Thursday.

Woodward's new book, "The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat," is not due in stores until next week, but a USA Today reporter bought a copy at a bookstore in Fairfax County, Va., which had mistakenly put the book out for sale.

In the book, Woodward reports while he and Bernstein were reporting on Watergate he had a feeling someone at the Post was leaking information about his sources to the White House.

He said Felt, then the second-ranking official at the FBI, provided one of the most important stories to come out of the scandal -- that gaps in an Oval Office audio recording indicated someone may have deliberately erased incriminating information from the Watergate tapes.