J. Edgar Hoover: Ben Bradlee Was a 'Colossal Liar'

Legendary Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who oversaw the paper's Watergate investigation which ended the presidency of Richard Nixon, was a "colossal liar," according to former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, who added, "I would trust him so much as I would a rattlesnake" and ordered the Bureau to refuse to answer inquiries from Bradlee.

The revelations come from the release of the FBI's 52-page file on Bradlee under the Freedom of Information Act, which reveal that the late editor had been under investigation by the FBI, which considered, but later rejected, trying to enlist Bradlee as a "double agent" inside the Post, Politico reports.

"In this particular case, because of certain aspects of subject's background, it is not felt interview with subject … is desirable, and authority to interview him for this purpose is denied," Hoover wrote, Politico reported.

Irritated because of a 1965 article Bradlee completed on Hoover for Newsweek, Hoover scrawled on the report, "He has been proven to be a colossal liar," the Washingtonian reports.

The FBI declined to enlist Bradlee as a double agent in its Development of Selected Contacts (DESECO) program, ended in 1974, "because of certain aspects of subject's background," but the redacted report does not specify what those aspects were, the Washingtonian says.

Bradlee long held interest for the FBI, which first investigated him when he applied for a position with Voice of America, and also expressed concerns about his friendship with John and Robert Kennedy, the FBI file notes.

He was criticized for associating with "liberal" Walter Lippmann in an effort to break up a newspaper monopoly in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Bradlee, who died last October, was famed as the boss of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during their investigation which broke the Watergate scandal.

In a 1968 memo, FBI agent M.A. Jones noted that Bradlee allegedly was leaking Hoover-provided inside information about the FBI's attempts to smear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the time the article considered unfavorable by Hoover was published.

"Bradlee demonstrated his marked lack of integrity and the treacherous nature with the publication of the unfavorable article and the fact that we later learned that he was repeating the information around Washington which the Director had furnished him in confidence regarding (redacted) and degeneracy of Martin Luther King," Politico reported Jones as having written.

After Hoover's death in 1972, Bradlee attempted to bury the hatchet with the FBI, writing in a 1973 memo to new bureau chief Clarence Kelley that he wanted the Post and the FBI to "develop a more friendly attitude," and adding, "I think we are paranoid about you and the FBI is paranoid about us."

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