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John Stanley Pottinger

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John Stanley Pottinger
United States Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division
In office
1973–1977
PresidentRichard Nixon
Gerald Ford
Preceded byDavid Norman
Succeeded byDrew S. Days III
Personal details
Born(1940-02-13)February 13, 1940
Dayton, Ohio, U.S.
DiedNovember 27, 2024(2024-11-27) (aged 84)
Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.
Political partyRepublican
SpouseGloria Anderson (Divorced 1975)
Children3, including Matt
EducationHarvard University (BA, JD)

John Stanley Pottinger (February 13, 1940 – November 27, 2024) was an American novelist and lawyer. In the 1970s, he held federal offices involved with civil rights enforcement. He also worked as a banker in the 1980s.

Early life and education

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J. Stanley Pottinger was born on February 13, 1940 in Dayton, Ohio, to parents Elnora (née Zeller) and John Pottinger.[1] He grew up and attended high school in Dayton.[2] Pottinger credits his father John with instilling in him an awareness of civil rights.[3] In 1962, Pottinger graduated from Harvard University, and he continued his studies at Harvard and graduated with a JD from Harvard Law School in 1965.[4] Pottinger's interest in politics led him to volunteer in 1966 to aid the campaign of Robert H. Finch for lieutenant governor of California.[2] Finch asked him in 1968 to head the Civil Rights Division.[2]

Career

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Pottinger held significant roles as a bureaucratic appointee in the Nixon, Ford and Carter Administrations. He held the position of the Director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health, Education and Welfare from 1970 to 1973 and later served as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the United States Department of Justice from 1973 to 1977.[5][6] According to journalist Bob Woodward, Pottinger was the only person who discovered that the true identity of Watergate source Deep Throat was Mark Felt. Pottinger maintained the secret until 2005, when Felt publicly declared he was Deep Throat.[7]

Pottinger later engaged in a lucrative practice on Wall Street and wrote a best selling book, The Fourth Procedure (1995),[8][9] as well as several other novels, including A Slow Burning (1999),[10] The Last Nazi (2003)[11] and The Boss (2005).[12]

In 2013, Pottinger was a signatory to an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court in support of same-sex marriage during the Hollingsworth v. Perry case.[13]

Pottinger represented more than 20 survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse.[14][15]

Personal life

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Pottinger began dating Gloria Anderson in high school; they married in 1965 and have three children together, including former U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Matt Pottinger.[3] Pottinger and Anderson divorced in 1975.[3] He later had a nine-year relationship with Gloria Steinem that ended in 1984.[5][3] Other exes include Kathie Lee Gifford, Connie Chung, and publisher-turned-agent Joni Evans, according to a 1995 profile in The Washington Post.[6]

Pottinger died at the age of 84 on November 27, 2024, in Princeton, New Jersey, from cancer.[1]

References

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  1. ^ a b Risen, Clay (November 29, 2024). "J. Stanley Pottinger, 84, Dies; Official Figured Out Identity of 'Deep Throat'". The New York Times. Retrieved November 29, 2024.
  2. ^ a b c "Civil Rights Protector John Stanley Pottinger". The New York Times. March 30, 1974. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d Lasswell, Mark (June 5, 1995). "Surgical Strike". People. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  4. ^ "J. Stanley Pottinger Papers, 1968-1981". Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. Retrieved December 1, 2024.
  5. ^ a b "A Veteran and China Hand Advises Trump for Xi's Visit". The New York Times. April 4, 2017. Retrieved May 8, 2017.
  6. ^ a b Span, Paula (May 13, 1995). "The Many Lives of Stanley Pottinger". The Washington Post. Retrieved February 7, 2020.
  7. ^ Woodward, Bob (July 6, 2005). The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9780743289283. Retrieved January 7, 2021 – via Google Books.
  8. ^ "Here's a Man Who Can Honestly Say He's Done It All". The Los Angeles Times. June 11, 1995.
  9. ^ Pottinger, Stanley (1995). The Fourth Procedure. Coronet. ISBN 978-0-340-65754-6. OL 18211195M.
  10. ^ Pottinger, Stanley (1999). A Slow Burning. Coronet. ISBN 978-0-340-69592-0. OCLC 86307299. OL 18423342M.
  11. ^ Pottinger, Stan (August 1, 2003). The Last Nazi. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-27676-8. OCLC 1060711578. OL 3690512M.
  12. ^ Pottinger, Stanley (2005). The Boss. Hodder & Stoughton. ISBN 978-0-340-77104-4. OCLC 71189917. OL 32081916M.
  13. ^ Avlon, John (February 28, 2013). "The Pro-Freedom Republicans Are Coming: 131 Sign Gay-Marriage Brief". The Daily Beast.
  14. ^ "Jeffrey Epstein news: New lawsuits detail how Jeffrey Epstein allegedly lured victims". CBS News. August 20, 2019. Retrieved January 5, 2024.
  15. ^ Silver-Greenberg, Jessica; Steel, Emily; Bernstein, Jacob; Enrich, David (November 30, 2019). "Jeffrey Epstein, Blackmail and a Lucrative 'Hot List'". The New York Times.
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