John Stanley Pottinger

Who is John Stanley Pottinger?

J. Stanley Pottinger has been a Washington bureaucrat, a lawyer, investment banker, and novelist. Pottinger was born in Dayton Ohio.

He was educated at Harvard University and Harvard Law School, graduating with a JD in 1965.

Pottinger held significant roles as a bureaucratic appointee in the Nixon, Ford and Carter Administrations. From 1970 to 1973, he held the position of the Director of the Office of Civil Rights, at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1970-1973 and from 1973-77 served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the United States Department of Justice.

Bob Woodward told the story in his book The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat that during a 1976 grand jury appearance over break-ins ordered by Mark Felt, Pottinger discovered that Felt was Deep Throat. During the grand jury hearing, a juror asked Felt, who was testifying, whether he was Deep Throat. Pottinger says that Felt went white with fear. Pottinger instructed Felt that while Felt was under oath and had to answer truthfully, but Pottinger considered the question to be beyond the scope of the inquiry and would be withdrawn if Felt wanted.