Another strange twist involved Gilpatric after his death, when a 2008 book by former acting director of the FBI L. Patrick Gray alleged that Gilpatric, back in private practice and with "Time" magazine as a client at the time of the Watergate break-in, learned from sources at the magazine that a senior official at the FBI was leaking to Sandy Smith, one of its reporters. Gray claimed that outraged by such behavior, Gilpatric tipped off Nixon administration officials to the identity of the official.