FBI Agent Robert Hanssen Escapes Death Penalty After Selling U.S. Secrets To Russia In History Today, May 10, 2002

Robert Hanssen (Sumber: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - On May 10, 2002, FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hanssen was convicted of selling U.S. secrets to Russia for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

Citing The Guardian, Hanssen was known to sell US information to Russia for 20 years. He avoided the death penalty by pleading guilty to 15 counts of spying and agreeing to cooperate with counterintelligence investigators.

During the trial, investigators questioned the accuracy of the testimony Hanssen gave. But the FBI and defense attorneys agree Hanssen has worked closely together to avoid execution.

As part of the plea deal, Hanssen's wife was allowed to withdraw an annual FBI pension of $40,000. "I apologize for my behavior. I'm embarrassed by that," Hanssen said.

Hansen's apology was made in Alexandria, Virginia. "I have opened the door to slander against my wife and children who are completely innocent. I've hurt a lot of people," he said in a green prison uniform.

The scale of Hanssen's betrayal embarrassed the face of the FBI, which failed to crack down on early warnings of what Hanssen had done. Hanssen is believed to have received about 600,000 U.S. dollars in cash and diamonds.

He is also said to have received two Rolex watches as well as an $800,000 guarantee that had been deposited in a Russian bank on behalf of his family. Lawyer Paul McNulty said the sentence should have sent a signal to other would-be traitors.

"Robert Hanssen was trained to catch spies," McNulty said.

'He's an expert in how to avoid arrest. And he was eventually arrested. And he was punished. And that's what will happen to anyone who betrays this country," McNulty added.

Hanssen's lawyer Plato Cacheris said several friends were present at the hearing. None of the family members, however, were present.

When asked how Hanssen could change during this process, Cacheris said Hanssen experienced weight loss in prison because the food there was bad. When asked about Hanssen's motivations, Cacheris said the reasons were complex.

Cacheris also notes some monetary reasons that also involve Hanssen's ego. In a letter Hanssen allegedly wrote to Russia, Hansen said he was inspired as a teenager by the memoirs of a British double agent, Kim Philby.

Cacheris said the harm caused by Hanssen's treatment of the U.S. was very serious. But Cacheris said it was up to the intelligence community to assess all these issues.

"Obviously, this is a serious case. Otherwise, the punishment won't be that extreme. There will be no threat of the death penalty," Cacheris.

About Robert Hanssen

Born in 1944, Hanssen is a Chicago native and the son of a police officer. Hanssen graduated from Knox College in 1966, before attending the school of dentistry at Northwestern University.

Hanssen dropped out of the program to earn an MBA. After that, Hanssen worked as an investigator in the Chicago Police Department, until joining the FBI in 1976.

Reported by History, at the FBI, Hanssen worked in Indiana and New York. In this case, Hanssen is not the first FBI agent to be arrested for being a Russian spy.

Another betrayal of U.S. agents

In 1984, 17 years before Hanssen's arrest, Richard Miller, a 20-year veteran stationed in the FBI's foreign counterintelligence unit in Los Angeles, was arrested for selling classified documents to Russian agents. In 1986, Miller was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

His sentence was later overturned. But at the second trial in 1990, Miller was again found guilty. Miller was released from prison in 1994.

The second FBI agent arrested for being a Russian spy was Earl Pitts, who volunteered to be a KGB spy in 1987. Pitts handed over classified information to the Russians until 1992.

At that time the Russians promised to pay him more than 220 thousand U.S. dollars. In 1996, Pitts was arrested in an FBI hand-grab operation. He pleaded guilty to espionage and in 1997 was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

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