An FBI veteran was charged today with betraying Soviet double agents and selling US secrets to Moscow's KGB security service in the 1980's, causing what US officials called exceptionally grave damage.
Robert Philip Hanssen was arrested on Sunday at his home outside Washington after he allegedly dropped off a package of classified information at a park in northern Virginia.
In one of most serious espionage incidents in years, prosecutors said Hanssen could face a possible death sentence for each of the two charges.
Hanssen, who has six children, was alleged to have made $1.4 million working for the Russians.
FBI Director Louis Freeh said in a statement: "Hanssen gained access to the most sensitive and highly classified information in the United States government."
He added: "The criminal conduct alleged represents the most traitorous actions imaginable against a country governed by the rule of law. The full extent of the damage was not known as making an accurate assessment could have jeopardised the investigation. We believe it was exceptionally grave."
Freeh said Hanssen's spying dated back as far as 1985 and continued until his arrest in Virginia on Sunday.
Using the code name Ramon, Freeh said Hanssen provided highly classified information to the KGB and its successor agency, the SVR. He said Hanssen used encrypted communication, dead drops and other clandestine techniques.
He said Hanssen independently disclosed the identity of two KGB officials who, first compromised by convicted CIA spy Aldridge Ames, had been recruited by the US government to serve as agents in place at the Soviet embassy in Washington.
When these two KGB officials returned to Moscow, they were tried and convicted on espionage charges and executed, Freeh said.
The formal charges made public at a hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, relate to two incidents toward the end of the Cold War.
The 27-year FBI veteran, dressed in a black turtle neck, black shirt and gray slacks, was silent and solemn as the charges were read at the federal court.
Defense lawyer Plato Cacheris said Hanssen, (56), planned at this stage to plead not guilty, adding that his client was emotional and quite upset by the case against him.
He becomes the third FBI agent in history to be arrested on charges of spying for the Russians.
Reuters