Posted on 07/08/2006 7:31:38 AM PDT by RDTF
A D.C. author who co-wrote W. Mark Felts' 1979 memoir, in which the former top FBI official denied being the legendary Watergate source "Deep Throat," says in a lawsuit that he was tricked into signing away his rights to the work. Ralph de Toledano, in a lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court here, states that Mr. Felt, his son and an attorney concealed their intention to disclose that Mr. Felt was indeed Deep Throat -- first in Vanity Fair magazine, then in a revised book.
-snip-
Mr. de Toledano says in his suit that California attorney John D. O'Connor gave him a check for $5,000 for his interest in the memoir, "The FBI Pyramid: From the Inside," a 351-page account of Mr. Felt's career from a first-year agent in 1942 to associate director in 1971. Mr. O'Connor ended the 30-year mystery of Deep Throat's identity in a July 2005 story he wrote for Vanity Fair magazine, which got substantial advance publicity. Mr. O'Connor later co-wrote, with Mr. Felt and his son, Mark Felt Jr., the new book about Mr. Felt's FBI career, incorporating the Deep Throat material. Called "A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' and the Struggle for Honor in Washington," it is languishing at No. 210,750 on the Amazon.com list and also available as an audiobook. In the original book, Mr. Felt insisted he was not Deep Throat or any other source who leaked information about the Watergate scandal and cover-up that eventually toppled President Richard M. Nixon. The Vanity Fair story confessing the truth increased the value of the book rights to a reported $1 million -snip-
Mr. de Toledano argues that he would not have relinquished his rights had he known Mr. Felt, now 92, was indeed Deep Throat.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Well, contract law does suggest that with a substantive ommission like this, you don't really have a "meeting of the minds", and the contract could be negated.
As has always been the case,it's all about the money with those fine,upright "progressives".
yes, from what we are reading it does sound like he has a good case
Who cares? I've already heard more than I wanted to know about these traitorous, seditious, jerks. If they aren't going to jail or being executed for their anti-American actions I don't care what happens to them.
JMHO
I too am glad to see Mr. de Toledano alive and kicking. Seeing his name reminds me of being a kid and reading "National Review" when it was just about the only game in town for those of us on the Right. He also used to write extensively about jazz.
I'm not so sure of that (no meeting of the minds) Toledano (from the article) appears to have written a career bio of Felt, just plain-old agent Felt, that few would likely care about w/o the "Deep Throat" association. Orig bio: 1979. "DT" connection admitted/established 2005 in Vanity Fair. 25-26 years. I could see some Statute of Limitations/Laches issues wrt Toledanos' rights to the much-improved valuation of the book with this new knowledge. But I'm not a lawyer so I guess we'll just have to see.
Imagine you are a manufacturer of baseballs. You make zillions of them. Barry Bonds hits one of yours over the fence for #715. Do you have rights to that ball?
I don't think the analogy is apt.
Sure, the man wrote a garden-variety biography. But then Felt purchased the rights to all future money from the biography, and the writer SOLD those rights. Sure, the writer had no idea the book would have value, but Felt DID know he was deep throat, and therefore knew, or should have known, that the value of the rights to the biography were much more valuable than what he offered.
I presume the writer had specifically asked Felt if he was deep throat, and Felt lied to him about it. And it's probably in writing. That lie was about a material fact effecting the value of the rights to the book.
I don't know if the statute of limitations apply. Almost everything I know about this area of law I learned watching a 5-part series on a local college educational channel, so any good lawyer might know more about this than I do.
Any inconvenience, stress, suffering and loss that the Felt's might suffer in this lawsuit is long overdue and fully justified.
Ping! to an interesting development.
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