President Nixon suspected that the FBI's W. Mark Felt was "Deep Throat," helping the Washington Post on Watergate, White House transcripts show.

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In a conversation recorded on Oct. 19, 1972, four months after the Watergate break-in, White House Chief of Staff H.R. Haldeman told Nixon a secret source had identified Felt as the primary leaker, CNN reported Friday.

"If we move on him, he'll go out and unload everything," Haldeman said. "He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI. He has access to absolutely everything."

Nixon, told Felt could not be prosecuted, replies, "You know what I'd do with him, the bastard?"

Felt, now 91, was the FBI's deputy director in the early 1970s, the No. 2 position in the bureau. His shadowy double identity was revealed this week in a Vanity Fair article, ending decades of guessing.