Nick Jones, Class of 2003, has discovered a new reason to admire his grandfather, Mark Felt — recently identified as Deep Throat, The Washington Post’s famous informant responsible for blowing the lid off the Watergate scandal, which caused President Richard Nixon to resign in 1974.

Deep Throat, considered by many to be the most important anonymous source ever quoted, has long been one of journalism’s greatest mysteries, according to Vanity Fair magazine, which broke the story. Felt, now 91-years-old, kept his role in the scandal under wraps for more than 30 years until yesterday, when writer John D. O’Connor announced his identity to the public.

The revelation doesn’t come as a complete surprise since Felt — who was the number two official at the Federal Bureau of Investigation during the Nixon administration — would have had access to the information that was revealed to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

In an interview with The Daily, Jones said that not even Felt’s immediate family knew of his role in tearing down the Nixon administration until a few years ago. The family has still not released an official response about when, exactly, they learned Felt’s secret, he added.

In 1972, five men affiliated with the Republican National Party — some of whom were later found to be directly involved with the Committee to Re-elect the President — broke into the National Democratic Committee’s headquarters, located in a Washington, D.C. office-hotel building called Watergate. Nixon denied accusations that his administration hired the men to help swing the polls in his favor. He was re-elected for a second term and the scandal faded for a short while.

During the summer and fall of 1973, however, Woodward and Bernstein wrote a number of articles that contained incriminating information regarding Nixon’s connection to the burglary. The seemingly outrageous facts were confirmed and some were even volunteered by a public official who insisted his identity be protected, according to the Vanity Fair article.

Felt was giving reporters “information on deep background,” CNN reported yesterday. “The Deep Throat nickname, coined by a Post editor, was a play on the phrase and a popular porn movie by the same name.”

Only Woodward, Bernstein and Benjamin C. Bradlee, the executive editor of The Post at the time, knew the face behind the Deep Throat alias.

Jones said his grandfather chose not to disclose his identity to anyone else until recently because “he was concerned about being an honorable guy.”

“He knew he had done the right thing in unveiling the Watergate scandal, but when you work for the FBI., everything is confidential,” Jones said. “Taking information to the press is breaking the FBI’s number one rule, and he wanted to protect the organization.”

Felt also feared for his personal safety and that of The Post reporters, O’Connor wrote in his article. Jones confirmed this fact.

The long-awaited truth about Deep Throat has proved to be electrifying. Jones said that reporters have been calling his family all day, proposing to pay them for extra pictures and interviews. Although Vanity Fair reported that Jones’ mother, Joan Felt, at one point thought profits from publicity could help pay her children’s tuitions, the family has decided not to accept any money, Jones said.

“We’re mainly just in it to honor my grandfather,” Jones said. “There have been offers of money, but that’s not what this is about.”

In a family statement which he read to the press, Jones said, “I guess people used to think Deep Throat was a criminal, but now they think he’s a hero.”