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(CNSNews.com) -- In its extensive coverage of "Deep Throat's" identity, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday that former Deputy FBI Director Mark Felt has been conflicted all along -- about his major, anonymous and possibly criminal role in leaking confidential details of the Watergate scandal to the Washington Post in the early 1970s.

As the Post put it on Wednesday, Felt wondered if he was a "hero for helping the truth come out" -- or a "turncoat who betrayed his government, his president, and the FBI he revered."

The Washington Post reported that Felt "may have had a personal motivation" in leaking details of a criminal investigation to two young Washington Post reporters: Felt was passed over as FBI director when J. Edgar Hoover died.

The Post said although Felt was Hoover's "likely successor," the White House named an FBI outsider, L. Patrick Gray III, as acting director.

Felt may also have a personal motivation in finally coming forward with the truth at age 91: His family apparently needs the money that Felt's sudden fame is expected to bring.

According to the Vanity Fair article, Felt's daughter Joan remembers saying, "Bob Woodward's going to get all the glory for this (revealing Deep Throat's identity), but we could make at least enough money to pay some bills, like the debt I've run up for the kids' education. Let's do it for the family."

(Joan Felt and other relatives on Tuesday refused to let Felt answer reporters' questions, possibly waiting for the big-bucks book deal.)

According to USA Today, Felt's attorney John O'Connor said he and Felt considered publishing a book to reveal Deep Throat's identity, but then they decided to "go for the dignity of it" by telling Felt's story to Vanity Fair -- which paid an undisclosed fee for the story.

USA Today quoted a Vanity Fair editor as saying that O'Connor's fee "was in keeping with what other freelancers are paid."

In spilling his long-kept secret to Vanity Fair, Felt scooped (and surprised) the Washington Post, which has lived up to its end of the agreement to say nothing about Deep Throat's identity until the leaker had died.

At age 91 and in failing health, Felt is now unlikely to face repercussions for obstruction of justice. His family only learned he was Deep Throat in 2002 -- and even then, only because Felt's close friend told the family, Vanity Fair said.

Felt's son told Vanity Fair that Felt would not have gone to the Washington Post during the Watergate era "if he didn't feel it was the only way to get around the corruption in the White House and Justice Department."

Felt's grandson Nick Jones read a statement saying, "The family believes that my grandfather, Mark Felt Sr., is a great American hero who went well above and beyond the call of duty at much risk to himself to save his country from a horrible injustice. We all sincerely hope the country will see him this way as well."

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