Robert Hanssen - FBI Agent, Russian Spy - DOJ, CIA, Military and other Documents

Robert Hanssen - FBI Agent, Russian Spy - DOJ, CIA, Military and other Documents

This collection contains 2,064 pages of material, containing coverage of the activities of Robert Hanssen.

Robert Philip Hanssen, a former FBI Counterintelligence Officer, was also a Russian spy for over twenty years and wasn’t detected by the FBI until 2001. Hanssen began his espionage activity in 1979, three years after his background investigation.

Hanssen periodically queried the FBI information systems for his own name, plus "dropbox" and other keywords, to see if he was being discovered. For the classified information he provided to Soviet and Russian intelligence officials between 1979 and 2001, he received in exchange 1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

The Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) 2003 review concluded that Hanssen escaped detection not because he was extraordinarily clever in his espionage, but because of long-standing systemic problems in the FBI's counterintelligence program and a deeply flawed FBI internal security program.

Hanssen was identified after the FBI paid $7 million to a KGB agent to obtain a file on an anonymous mole, whom the FBI later identified as Hanssen through fingerprint and voice analysis. On May 11, 2001, Robert Philip Hanssen was found guilty on 15 counts of espionage against the United States and was sentenced to 15 consecutive life sentences.

On June 5, 2023, Hanssen, age 79, was found unresponsive in his prison cell and was pronounced dead after unsuccessful efforts to revive him, at the supermax federal prison, United States Penitentiary (USP) Florence ADMAX in Florence, Colorado.

Highlights in this collection include

Affidavit in Robert Hanssen Spy Case - United States District Court Eastern District of Virginia (2001)

A 103-page court filing containing an affidavit in support of criminal complaint, arrest warrant and search warrants.

Department of Justice

Six reports including:

A Review of FBI Security Programs (Webster Report) March 2002 (2002)

A Review of the FBI's Performance in Deterring, Detecting, and Investigating the

Espionage Activities of Robert Philip Hanssen - Unclassified Executive Summary (2003)

A Review of the FBI’s Progress in Responding to the Recommendations in the

Office of the Inspector General Report on Robert Hanssen, September 2007 (2007)

Audit of the Roles and Responsibilities of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Office of the General Counsel in National Security Matters (2022)

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Files

106 pages of CIA files including mention of Robert Hanssen. Material includes memos showing Hanssen's presence at CIA meetings and Agency intelligence history literature with mention of Hanssen.

Defense Department Research Reports

1,163 pages in 11 Department of Defense technical reports and dissertations. Produced or sponsored by Department of Defense agencies including Defense Personnel Security Research Center, Naval Postgraduate School, Department of the Air Force Air University and the U.S. Army War College.

Reports include:

Policing and Psychopathy - The Case of Robert Phillip Hansen (2004)

Abstract: The psychological construct of psychopathy has received considerable attention in extant research. This is especially the case with respect to explaining the behavioral and personality dynamics of various offenders and criminal groups. Recently, the efficacy of the psychopathy concept has been extended outside the correctional context and applied to individuals and collectives in various organizational settings. One such environment, not yet subjected to scrutiny, is the occupation of policing where corruption and other integrity-based violations occur. This article examines the utility of the psychopathy construct for explaining the extremely violent behavior and personality structure of Robert P. Hanssen.

Hanssen was a former FBI agent convicted of 15 counts of espionage. He exchanged highly classified government information (including nuclear war plans) to the former Soviet Union and Russia in return for money and diamonds. As a federal law enforcement agent, his wrongful acts were considered by many to be among the most devastating to national security in United States history. Several very provisional implications stemming from the case study analysis are provided.

Espionage Against the United States by American Citizens 1947-2001

Abstract: Analyses of 150 cases of espionage against the United States by American citizens between 1947 and 2001 provide detailed data on the demographic and employment characteristics of American spies, on the means and methods they used to commit espionage, on their motivations, and on the consequences they suffered. Collected materials on the cases supplement the analyses conducted with a database that allows comparison of groups and the identification of trends. Factors highlighted include changes in espionage by Americans since the end of the Cold War and the impact of globalization and networked information systems on the practice of espionage.

Other reports include:

Changes in Espionage by Americans 1947-2007 (2008)

Comparing Insider IT Sabotage and Espionage A Model-Based Analysis (2006)

Exposing the Seams the Impetus for Reforming U.S. Counterintelligence (2003)

Insider Threat a Constant Problem with a Continuous Approach (2023)

Mitigating Insider Threat Using Human Behavior Influence Models (2006)

The Economics of Information Security (2002)

Unauthorized Disclosure - Can Behavioral Indicators Help Predict Who Will Commit Unauthorized Disclosure of Classified National Security Information (2015)

Understanding the Insider Threat Proceedings of a March 2004 Workshop (2004)