Not my take on the article at all. We must have been reading different articles. Woodward worked Felt as a possible asset in the future. Woodward knew how to plan ahead. That is my take. Woodward was friendly with Felt prior to Nixon not promoting him, and of course, prior to the break in. As to Felt's motives, that is speculation, and frankly, why is that relevant? Nixon was the one who chose to commit crimes, and to have sour grapes over its exposure, strike me as odd. As I said, yes Felt could have shut it down, prior to Nixon crossing the Rubicon, and he didn't. But then, that was not his job, and yes, maybe he was mad at Nixon. So what?
What do you mean it was not his job?
He was, for all intents and purposes, RUNNING the FBI, Hoover traveling around the country and Tolson so ill he couldn't come to work.
His JOB was to NOT devulge criminal evidence known to him in an ongoing investigation; there were LEGAL ways to handle it.
The Democrats were in control on Congress; I'm sure as hell Sam Irwin would have been interested in hearing what he had to say.
And he evidently wasn't mad enough at Nixon to not ask him to come and testify on his behalf at his "black bag" trial, was he?