W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller

Posted on | November 21, 2009 | No Comments

W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller were FBI agents convicted of crimes related to their roles in civil rights violations they committed through their top jobs with the feds. These g-men purportedly abused their power. A closer look at the convictions reveals that these cases are not so simple and perhaps explains the rationale for the pardon.

In 2005, W. Mark Felt revealed that he was “Deep Throat,” the informant that lead to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s breaking the Watergate scandal. He was the original whistleblower. I digress.

Felt was the second highest ranking FBI agent during most of the Nixon presidency. He believed that our government should police and take proactive steps in preventing bombings by fundamentalist political organizations. He ordered searches of the homes of members of the Weather Underground Organization, to prevent said bombings. He did this without probable cause and without warrants. He was convicted of this offense, but was then pardoned by Reagan during his appeal.

Edward S. Miller, not as notorious as Felt, was the head of the division of the FBI that ran the illegal searches of the homes of people suspected to be part of radical groups in the United States. He referred to these searches as “black-bag  jobs.” He ran the jobs associated with the Weather Underground illegal searches.

Once the Vietnam War had ended, so did the Weather Underground. Carter granted amnesty.

The break-in boys got off. Felt and Miller were tried and convicted together. Reagan pardoned both men. The break-in boys got off.

From the Weather Underground FBI Wanted Poster, circa 1970.

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