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Hanssen Will Plead Guilty, Lawyer Says NewsMax.com WiresWASHINGTON - Veteran FBI agent Robert Hanssen will avoid the death penalty by pleading guilty to charges that he spied for Russia, his attorney said Tuesday. "This is an appropriate resolution which we believe is beneficial to the government and to Mr. Hanssen and his family," defense attorney Preston Burton said. The agreement reportedly allows Hanssen's wife and six children to receive his pension. Hanssen could have faced the death penalty because the government said his spying led to the death of two double agents. Hanssen scheduled to appear in federal court in Alexandria, Va., on Friday morning. Though any final sentence is up to the judge, U.S. prosecutors will recommend he receive life in prison in exchange for complete cooperation. Like CIA traitor Aldrich Ames, Hanssen had access to some of the most guarded information in U.S. intelligence. Also like Ames, U.S. investigators were far more interested in repairing the damage allegedly caused by Hanssen than in seeking his life. A 32-year veteran of the CIA, Ames was arrested by an FBI team in northern Virginia in 1994. He was accused of working for Moscow beginning in 1985. In exchange for money, Ames betrayed vital American assets in Russia. At least 10, possibly as many as 15, Russians working covertly for the United States were executed as a result of information Ames supplied to Moscow. Until his arrest in northern Virginia earlier this year, Hanssen, like Ames, worked in counterintelligence and was responsible for defending the United States from foreign espionage. Like Ames, Hanssen allegedly operated for years within the shadowy world of clandestine operations, selling out his country in a cynical exchange for money, before he was detected and arrested. Finally, like Ames, Hanssen is represented by one of the best criminal lawyers in Washington, Plato Cacheris, who helped Ames avoid the death penalty in exchange for a guilty plea and full cooperation with U.S. investigators. U.S. intelligence had good reason to seek Ames' cooperation. Without it, U.S. officials might never have known the extent of the damage he caused. Hanssen was indicted May 16 on one count of conspiracy, 19 counts of espionage, one count of attempted espionage and one "forfeiture count" under which he would have to turn over all the assets he allegedly received from the Russians, if convicted. He pleaded not guilty during a brief arraignment May 31, and is being held without bail in an unidentified federal detention center in northern Virginia. To seek the death penalty on any of the espionage charges, the government would have had to prove that Hanssen "knowingly created a grave risk of substantial danger to the national security" or that he "knowingly created a grave risk of death to another," according to U.S. law. In the indictment, Hanssen is charged with giving the Russians the identities of "individuals acting as agents of the United States" in Russia, resulting in the deaths of two of the agents. Some of the documents allegedly transmitted by Hanssen to the Russians "were those which directly concerned satellites, early warning systems, means of defense or retaliation against large-scale attack, communications intelligence and major elements of defense strategy," according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office in May. A 27-year veteran of the FBI, Hanssen was arrested Feb. 18 near his Vienna, Va., home while allegedly using a "dead drop" - a secure place chosen to deposit documents for later pickup by his alleged Russian handlers. The FBI said at the time of the arrest that its agents found a package containing highly classified information and another package nearby that contained $50,000 in cash, allegedly left at the drop for Hanssen. Hanssen allegedly kept his identity secret even from his Russian handlers, and worked with them using the code name "Ramon." He is accused of working for Moscow from inside the FBI since 1985 in exchange for about $1.4 million in cash and diamonds. Before his arrest, Hanssen was a counterintelligence specialist with the FBI's National Security Division. Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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