Mark Felt Director of the FBI 1972 -1978

I was doing some reading about Mark Felt and learned that he was on Nixon's short list to replace Hoover. Nixon decided to go with a loyalist rather than an FBI insider. If he had gotten the job he wanted, then he would not have been Deep Throat. While Woodard and Bernstein did give the Watergate Scandal some more visibility in 1972, I don't see this changing anything. I am wondering if anyone here can see some changes coming of this. Also when Felt reached the mandatory retirement age in 1978, I don't see Jimmy Carter letting him stay on the job. I don't think he would want another Hoover.
 
I was doing some reading about Mark Felt and learned that he was on Nixon's short list to replace Hoover. Nixon decided to go with a loyalist rather than an FBI insider. If he had gotten the job he wanted, then he would not have been Deep Throat. While Woodard and Bernstein did give the Watergate Scandal some more visibility in 1972, I don't see this changing anything. I am wondering if anyone here can see some changes coming of this. Also when Felt reached the mandatory retirement age in 1978, I don't see Jimmy Carter letting him stay on the job. I don't think he would want another Hoover.

If Felt isn't given documents by Dean from Hunt to destroy, which is quite possible, he may, if Nixon nominates him for the "permanent" position in Feb. '73, win Senate confirmation - unlike L. Patrick Gray. I wonder, if Nixon had named Felt as Acting Director, might he still nominate Gray for the directorship? (As he did in the summer of '73 when he nominated Clarence Kelly for the job over the acting director, William Ruckelshaus.). Gray could conceivably have been FBI director from 1973 to 1981 had Nixon gone that route.

Here are two additional possibilities: WI Acting Director Felt managed to convince RMN not to participate in the Watergate Cover-up OR alternatively, WI Felt, after receiving Hunt's documents, copies and leaks them.
 
I can't see Felt destroying the Hunt documents, which was Gray's big faux pas.
I think he keeps the job until mandatory retirement.
 
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