Editing Robert Hanssen (section)

== Investigation and arrest ==
The existence of two Russian moles working in the U.S. security and intelligence establishment simultaneously—Ames at the CIA and Hanssen at the FBI—complicated counterintelligence efforts during the 1990s. Ames was arrested in 1994. His exposure explained many of the asset losses U.S. intelligence suffered during the 1980s, including the arrest and execution of [[Valery Martinov|Martinov]] and Motorin. However, two cases—the Bloch investigation and the embassy tunnel—remained unsolved. Ames had been stationed in [[Rome]] at the time of the Bloch investigation and could not have known about that case or the tunnel under the embassy, as he did not work for the FBI.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[CBS News]] |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-not-so-secret-tunnel/ |title=A Not-So-Secret Tunnel |date=March 5, 2001 |access-date=October 31, 2010 |archive-date=November 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141103074645/http://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-not-so-secret-tunnel/ |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|p=170}}</ref>

The FBI and CIA formed a joint mole-hunting team in 1994 to find the suspected second intelligence leak. They created a list of all agents known to have access to cases that were compromised. The FBI's codename for the suspected spy was "Graysuit". Some promising suspects were cleared, and the mole hunt found other penetrations, such as CIA officer [[Harold James Nicholson]], who was arrested in 1996. However, Hanssen escaped notice, likely because these efforts concentrated on CIA agents rather than FBI agents.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|p=173}}</ref>

By 1998, using FBI [[criminal profiling]] techniques, the pursuers suspected an innocent man: [[Brian Kelley (CIA officer)|Brian Kelley]], a CIA operative involved in the Bloch investigation. The CIA and FBI searched his house, tapped his telephone, and surveilled him, following him and his family everywhere. In November 1998, they had a man with a foreign accent come to Kelley's door, warn him that the FBI knew he was a spy, and tell him to show up at a [[Washington Metro|Metro]] station the next day to escape. Kelley instead reported the incident to the FBI. In 1999, the FBI even interrogated Kelley, his ex-wife, two sisters, and three children. All denied everything. He was eventually placed on administrative leave, where he remained, [[falsely accused]] until after Hanssen was arrested.<ref name="oig" /><ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=205–213}}</ref>

FBI investigators later made progress during an operation where they paid disaffected Russian intelligence officers to deliver information on moles. They paid $7 million to KGB agent Alexandr Shcherbakov<ref>{{cite web |last1=Stein |first1=Jeff |title=Riddle Resolved: Who Dimed Out American Traitor and Super-Spy, Robert Hanssen? |date=November 1, 2018 |url=https://www.newsweek.com/who-dimed-out-american-traitor-super-spy-robert-hanssen-1196080 |website=Newsweek.com |publisher=Newsweek |access-date=November 1, 2018 |archive-date=November 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181101161003/https://www.newsweek.com/who-dimed-out-american-traitor-super-spy-robert-hanssen-1196080 |url-status=live}}</ref> who had access to a file on "B". While it did not contain Hanssen's name, among the information was an audiotape of a July 21, 1986, conversation between "B" and KGB agent Aleksander Fefelov.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[NPR]] |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7152496 |title=Robert Hanssen: A Brief History |date=February 4, 2007 |access-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-date=April 8, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180408210210/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7152496 |url-status=live}}</ref> FBI agent Michael Waguespack thought the voice was familiar, but could not remember who it was. Rifling through the rest of the files, they found notes of the mole using a quote from [[George S. Patton's speech to the Third Army]] about "the purple-pissing Japanese".<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|p=140}}</ref> FBI analyst Bob King remembered Hanssen using that same quote. Waguespack listened to the tape again and recognized the voice as Hanssen's. With the mole finally identified, locations, dates, and cases were matched with Hanssen's activities during the period. Two fingerprints collected from a trash bag in the file were analyzed and proved to be Hanssen's.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=218–228}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Cherkashin|Feifer|2005|p=251}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Schiller|2004|p=260}}</ref>

[[File:Robert Hanssen mugshot.jpg|thumb|[[Mug shot]], taken on the day of his arrest]]
The FBI surveilled Hanssen and soon discovered he was again in contact with the Russians. To bring him back to FBI headquarters, where he could be closely monitored and kept away from sensitive data, they promoted him. They gave him a new job supervising FBI computer security. Hanssen was given an office and an assistant, [[Eric O'Neill]], who was actually a young FBI surveillance specialist who had been assigned to watch Hanssen. O'Neill ascertained that Hanssen was using a [[Palm III]] [[Personal digital assistant|PDA]] to store his information. When O'Neill was able to briefly obtain Hanssen's PDA and have agents download and decode its encrypted contents, the FBI acquired their conclusive evidence.<ref>{{cite news |work=[[Fresh Air]] |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7094972 |title=Eric O'Neill and Billy Ray Discuss 'Breach' |date=January 31, 2007 |publisher=[[NPR]] |access-date=October 26, 2019 |archive-date=April 2, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402104340/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7094972 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=[[ABC News (United States)|ABC News]] |url=https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123776 |title=20/20 Report on Eric O'Neill |date=December 27, 2002 |access-date=January 31, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070220072155/https://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123776 |archive-date=February 20, 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |work=[[CNN]] |url=https://transcripts.cnn.com/show/acd/date/2003-10-01/segment/00 |title=Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees: Uproar Over CIA Operative; Iraq Weapons Hunt: Congress to be Briefed |date=October 1, 2003 |access-date=January 31, 2007 |archive-date=February 10, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210083607/http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0310/01/acd.00.html |url-status=live}}</ref>

During his final days with the FBI, Hanssen began to suspect something was wrong. In early February 2001, he asked his friend at a computer technology company for a job. He also believed he heard noises on his car radio that indicated it was bugged, although the FBI was later unable to reproduce the noises Hanssen claimed to have heard. In the last letter he wrote to the Russians, which was found by the FBI when he was arrested, Hanssen said that he had been promoted to a "do-nothing job&nbsp;... outside of regular access to information" and that "Something has aroused the sleeping tiger".<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=236–239}}</ref>

However, Hanssen's suspicions did not stop him from making one more [[dead drop]]. After leaving a friend at an airport on February 18, 2001, Hanssen drove to Virginia's [[Foxstone Park]]. He placed a white piece of tape on a park sign to signal his Russian contacts that there was information at the dead drop site. He then followed his usual routine, taking a sealed garbage bag of classified material and taping it to the bottom side of a wooden footbridge over a creek. When FBI agents observed this incriminating act, they rushed in to arrest Hanssen.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=7–8}}</ref> Upon being arrested, Hanssen asked, "What took you so long?" The FBI waited two more days to see if any of Hanssen's SVR handlers would show up at Foxstone Park. When they failed to appear, the [[United States Justice Department]] announced Hanssen's arrest on February 20.<ref>{{Harvnb|Wise|2003|pp=246–247}}</ref>

=== Guilty plea and imprisonment ===
[[File:Florence ADMAX.jpg|thumb|[[United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX]], where he was incarcerated]]
Represented by Washington, D.C., lawyer [[Plato Cacheris]], Hanssen negotiated a [[plea bargain]] that enabled him to avoid the death penalty in exchange for cooperating with authorities.<ref name="transcript" /> On July 6, 2001, he pleaded guilty to 13 counts of espionage, one count of attempted espionage, and one of [[conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] to commit espionage in the [[U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia]].<ref name="transcript" /><ref name="usdoj.gov" /> On May 10, 2002, Hanssen was sentenced to 15 consecutive sentences of [[Life imprisonment|life in prison]] without the possibility of parole. "I apologize for my behavior. I am shamed by it," Hanssen told [[U.S. District Court|U.S. District]] Judge [[Claude M. Hilton|Claude Hilton]]. "I have opened the door for [[:wikt:calumny|calumny]] against my totally innocent wife and children. I have hurt so many deeply."<ref>{{Cite news| title = FBI Spy Robert Hanssen Gets Life Sentence | publisher = [[FoxNews.com]] | date = May 10, 2002| url = https://www.foxnews.com/story/fbi-spy-robert-hanssen-gets-life-sentence/ | access-date = December 23, 2013| archive-date = March 3, 2015| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150303214929/http://www.foxnews.com/story/2002/05/10/fbi-spy-robert-hanssen-gets-life-sentenc-678637401/| url-status = live }}</ref>
[[File:Robert Hanssen imprisoned.jpg|thumb|In his cell at ADX Florence]]
Hanssen was [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]] prisoner #48551-083. From July 17, 2002, until his death, he served his sentence at the [[ADX Florence]], a federal [[supermax prison]] near [[Florence, Colorado|Florence]], Colorado, in [[solitary confinement]] for 23 hours a day.<ref>Laura Sullivan, [[National Public Radio]] [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5579901 ''Timeline: Solitary Confinement in US Prisons''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715064457/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5579901 |date=July 15, 2018}} July 26, 2006. Retrieved February 15, 2007.</ref><ref>"[http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=48551-083&x=411&y=291 Robert Philip Hanssen] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090614050540/http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=IDSearch&needingMoreList=false&IDType=IRN&IDNumber=48551-083&x=411&y=291 |date=June 14, 2009}}." [[Federal Bureau of Prisons]]. Retrieved January 5, 2010.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Robert Hanssen, one of America's most notorious spies, dies in prison |url=https://abc7.com/robert-hanssen-spy-adx-florence-russia-death/13347988/ |access-date=June 6, 2023 |website=[[WLS-TV]]|date=June 5, 2023 }}</ref>