Felt died at 12:45 p.m. at a hospice near his home in Santa Rosa, Calif. where he had been living since August.
Felt "was fine this morning" and was "joking with his caregiver," according to his daughter, Joan Felt. She said in a phone interview that her father ate a big breakfast before remarking that he was tired and went to sleep.
"He slipped away," she said.
He suffered from congestive heart failure, but the cause of death wasn't yet known:
“He was an important person for the history of our nation, but also such a gem and such a treasure to our family,” said his grandson, Nick Jones, who confirmed the death. “He was a great man.”
Jones said the family would issue a formal statement Friday.
In 2005, more than 30 years after his whistle-blowing helped topple a presidency, Mark Felt, once a top FBI official, held a press conference on the front steps of his Santa Rosa home.
Another article.
And yet another one:
Without Mr. Felt, there might not have been a Watergate — shorthand for the revealed abuses of presidential powers in the Nixon White House, including illegal wiretapping, burglaries and money laundering. Americans might never have seen a president as a criminal conspirator, or reporters as cultural heroes, or anonymous sources like Mr. Felt as a necessary if undesired tool in the pursuit of truth.
Like Nixon, Mr. Felt authorized illegal break-ins in the name of national security and then received the absolution of a presidential pardon. Their lives were intertwined in ways only they and a few others knew.
Nixon cursed his name when he learned early on that Mr. Felt was providing aid to the enemy in the wars of Watergate. The conversation was recorded in the Oval Office and later made public.
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