From a reader:

For what it’s worth:
My dad was a Special Agent in the FBI from 1951 until 1977. He knew Mark Felt and had significant contact with him. Felt was always on my dad’s short list of who Deep Throat could be, since the info provided to Woodward and Bernstein had to have come from someone with access to an incredible amount of sensitive information. Dad says it was no secret among FBI agents that Felt was angry that Nixon passed him over to replace J. Edgar Hoover and instead appointed his longtime crony Pat Gray. So Felt clearly had an axe to grind and by going to the media he exacted his revenge. He argues that any statements to the contrary about Felt’s motives are a disingenuous attempt to recast him as an altruistic whistleblower, which simply isn’t true.
Dad’s take is that Felt should have done something with the info he had, but going to the WaPo was illegal and, more important to my dad, a betrayal of his oath of office. Dad ’s position is that Felt should have gone to the grand jury, which would have been independent of FBI, DOJ and White House control, personal consequences be damned.
I have no idea if you would use this in a post, but if you do, without question please omit name.
Thanks, and keep up the great work.