For the serial killer, see Robert Hansen.For other people with similar names, see Robert Hanson.
Robert Hanssen
Born
Robert Philip Hanssen
(1944-04-18)April 18, 1944
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Died
June 5, 2023(2023-06-05) (aged 79)
ADX Florence, Fremont County, Colorado, U.S.
Alma mater
Knox College (BS)
Northwestern University (MBA)
Occupation
FBI agent (1976–2001)
Criminal charge(s)
18 U.S.C. § 794(a) and 794(c)[1] (Espionage Act)
Criminal penalty
15 consecutive life sentences without parole
Spouse
Bernadette "Bonnie" Wauck
(m. 1968)
Children
6
Espionage activity
Country
United States
Allegiance
Soviet Union
Russia
Agency
FBI
Service years
1979–2001
Codename
Ramon Garcia
Jim Baker
G. Robertson
Graysuit
"B"
Robert Philip Hanssen (April 18, 1944 – June 5, 2023) was an American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent who spied for Soviet and Russian intelligence services against the United States from 1979 to 2001. His espionage was described by the Department of Justice as "possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history".[2]
In 1979, three years after joining the FBI, Hanssen approached the Soviet Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) to offer his services, beginning his first espionage cycle, lasting until 1981. He restarted his espionage activities in 1985 and continued until 1991, when he ended communications during the collapse of the Soviet Union, fearing he would be exposed. Hanssen restarted communications the next year and continued until his arrest. Throughout his spying, he remained anonymous to the Russians.
Hanssen sold about six thousand classified documents to the KGB that detailed U.S. strategies in the event of nuclear war, developments in military weapons technologies, and aspects of the U.S. counterintelligence program.[3] He was spying at the same time as Aldrich Ames in the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Both Ames and Hanssen compromised the names of KGB agents working secretly for the U.S., some of whom were executed for their betrayal. Hanssen also revealed a multimillion-dollar eavesdropping tunnel built by the FBI under the Soviet Embassy. After Ames's arrest in 1994, some of these intelligence breaches remained unsolved, and the search for another spy continued. The FBI paid $7million to a KGB agent to obtain a file on an anonymous mole, whom the FBI later identified as Hanssen through fingerprint and voice analysis.
Hanssen was arrested on February 18, 2001, at Foxstone Park,[4] near his home in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Vienna, Virginia, after leaving a package of classified materials at a dead drop site. He was charged with selling U.S. intelligence documents to the Soviet Union and subsequently Russia for more than $1.4 million in cash, diamonds and Rolex watches over twenty-two years.[5][6] To avoid the death penalty, Hanssen pleaded guilty to fourteen counts of espionage and one of conspiracy to commit espionage.[7][8] He was sentenced to fifteen life terms without the possibility of parole, and was incarcerated at ADX Florence until his death in 2023.[9]
^Cite error: The named reference fashans was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"A Review of FBI Security Programs (Webster Report)". Commission for Review of FBI Security Programs. United States Department of Justice. March 2002. Archived from the original on November 7, 2015. Retrieved October 26, 2019.
^Cite error: The named reference oig was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Havill, Adrian. "His fate is sealed". crimelibrary.com. Archived from the original on September 7, 2007. Retrieved September 10, 2007.
^Wise 2003, p. 8
^"Secret Passage". Chicago Tribune. April 21, 2002. Archived from the original on May 3, 2023. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
^"Transcript of Hanssen Guilty Plea". July 6, 2001. Archived from the original on October 6, 2018. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
^Thompson Statement Regarding Hanssen Guilty Plea. United States Department of Justice (Report). July 6, 2001. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014. Retrieved February 22, 2007.
^"Robert Hanssen, former FBI agent convicted of spying for Russia, dead at 79". CBS News. June 5, 2023. Archived from the original on June 5, 2023. Retrieved June 5, 2023.
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