May 28, 2025 • 28 mins
A trusted FBI agent who sold America's greatest secrets for over two decades. Robert Hanssen's story represents the ultimate betrayal from within, a tale so astonishing it challenges our understanding of loyalty and deception.
From his unremarkable beginnings in Chicago to becoming the most dangerous mole in FBI history, Hanssen's journey reveals a man driven not by ideology but by wounded ego and financial gain.
The reforms triggered by Hanssen's case transformed the FBI's internal security measures, but they came too late for those whose lives were destroyed by his actions.
Follow this incredible trail of deception, and discover how the most dangerous threats often hide in plain sight.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Host (00:07):
Welcome to Clue Trail, where every story is a mystery
and every clue pulls you deeperinto the unknown, from unsolved
cases and strange disappearancesto hidden histories and curious
twists of fate.
To hidden histories and curioustwists of fate, we piece
together fragments, searchingfor the truth or uncovering even
(00:31):
bigger questions.
Some clues reveal answers,others lead to greater mysteries
.
But one thing is certain Everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin, and if you enjoyClue Trail, please take a moment
(00:55):
to leave us a rating or areview.
(01:20):
It helps more curious mindslike yours find the show.
Today's story is one ofdeception, ego and betrayal from
deep within.
Robert Hanssen wasn't someforeign agent who infiltrated
America.
He wore a suit, he went tochurch, he raised a family and
(01:44):
for over 20 years he quietlypassed America's most closely
guarded secrets to its greatestenemy.
Today, on Clue Trail, weunravel the chilling story of
Robert Hanssen, the man whoinfiltrated his own agency.
A double life built on lies,paranoia and more than 1.4
(02:07):
million dollars in cash anddiamonds.
This is the story of trust,shattered, lives lost and how
the most dangerous spy in FBIhistory almost got away with it.
(02:30):
Robert Philip Hanssen was bornon 18th of April 1944, in
Chicago.
On the surface, his life lookedtypical devoutly Catholic,
conservative and family-oriented.
But there was another side tothis suburban normal family.
(02:51):
Behind closed doors, his father, a Chicago police officer, was
emotionally abusive anddomineering.
Nothing Robert was doing wasever good enough for his father.
He grew up desperate for hisapproval.
He studied chemistry at KnoxCollege, then switched to
(03:15):
business, but it was lawenforcement that called to him.
In 1968, Robert Hanssen beganhis career in law enforcement by
joining the Chicago PoliceDepartment.
No doubt he wanted to follow inhis father's footsteps.
Starting out as a uniformedpatrol officer, he quickly
advanced to a position withinthe Organized Crime Control Unit
(03:37):
.
During this time in this role,he had the opportunity to hone
in his skills in surveillanceand undercover operations,
experience that would laterprove invaluable in his
espionage activities.
He first applied to the FBI in1972, but he was initially
(04:00):
turned down due to agency budgetconstraints.
Refusing to give up, he pursuedfurther education and earned a
law degree from NorthwesternUniversity in 1974.
His determination eventuallypaid off.
In 1976, Robert Hanssen was anFBI agent.
(04:21):
He began his FBI careerhandling general criminal
investigations.
He then transferred to New YorkCity in 1979.
That is where he stepped into aworld of counterintelligence, a
move that would later changeeverything.
From the start he stood out.
(04:54):
He was no doubt intelligent,highly educated and deeply
interested in law enforcementand national security, but he
was also socially awkward,secretive and deeply mistrustful
.
Even among colleagues he was aloner.
(05:16):
His goal was to be a fieldagent, to be in the middle of
action, but again and again hewas overlooked, even when he was
eagerly putting his hand up.
His job now was to view theaction from the sidelines.
He was tasked to analyzeintelligence, track suspicious
(05:38):
activity and assess potentialrisks to the country.
Assess potential risks to thecountry.
Ironically, he worked in thevery division responsible for
tracking foreign spies.
So now left frustrated,overlooked all his past, for
promotion, hansen took ashocking and dangerous step.
(06:01):
He approached the Sovietembassy whilst on a work trip to
Washington DC and offered hisservices as a spy.
(06:23):
Robert Hanssen's first act oftreason wasn't the result of
blackmail or even coercion.
It was a calculated choice.
In 1979, just three years afterjoining the FBI, hansen made
his first anonymous approach toSoviet intelligence.
(06:43):
It all started when he mailed apackage to the Soviet GRU, the
Military Intelligence Agency.
Inside that envelope there werehighly classified US
intelligence.
During this first period ofespionage, he provided the
(07:04):
Soviets with an alarming amountof sensitive information.
But perhaps his mostdevastating betrayal was leaking
the identity of a Russiandouble agent like Dmitry
Polyakov.
He was a top-ranking Sovietgeneral and a long-time CIA
informant.
Polyakov has spent yearssupplying US intelligence with
(07:29):
invaluable information, thanksto both Hanssen and later CIA
mole Aldrich Ames.
Polyakov was eventuallyarrested by the Soviets in 1986
and executed two years later.
Robert Hanssen didn't take thisextreme step for ideology.
(07:50):
He wasn't a Soviet sympathizer.
If anything, he was anultra-conservative Catholic who
once told a friend thatcommunism was evil.
For him, this was aboutsuperiority.
It was about his ego proving heis above others, more
(08:12):
intelligent, more cunning,proving to himself that he
shouldn't have been overlooked.
And eventually it was aboutmoney.
That he shouldn't have beenoverlooked.
And eventually it was aboutmoney.
By that point, Robert Hanssenhad a growing family, three
children he had to support, andNew York wasn't cheap.
In exchange for his information, the Soviets paid him just over
(08:35):
$20,000.
He used the money to help payoff Deb and support his family.
That was only the beginning.
The most dangerous part he wasnever caught doing this in that
period Well, at least not by theFBI.
You see, hiding $20,000 in cashwouldn't be easy.
(08:58):
It's not like you can depositthem in a bank account.
That would raise suspicions.
So Hanssen resorted in stashingsome of this cash in the garage
and only spending the money ongroceries, gas and generally
things that wouldn't raisesuspicions.
He was careful not to livebeyond his means.
(09:19):
All was fine.
He was flying under the radarUntil one morning when he had to
come clean about what he hasdone to his wife Bonnie.
He was in his garage thatmorning.
When she caught him sneakingaround, being all suspicious,
(09:39):
her first thought he is hidingevidence of an affair.
But when he came clean to whathe was hiding, nothing could
have prepared her for that.
He lied, saying he only sharedan important intel, nothing that
would cause harm.
He said it is only for money.
He was desperate to provide forthem.
(10:01):
He won't do it again.
Bonnie made him promise to stop.
He cannot do this again and heneeds to confess to their past.
So confessed he did.
He kept his head down and hestopped spying.
Well, at least for a while.
(10:25):
By the time 1985 rolled around,things were getting a bit hard
in the Hanssen household.
He was struggling financially.
The FBI.
Salary wasn't as high as hemight have expected, and being
overlooked again and again forthe jobs he wanted only made him
angrier.
So he returned to espionage,but this time he was even more
(10:51):
calculated.
Instead of contacting the GRU,he switched to the big guns, the
KGB, his code name Ramon Garcia.
That October in 1985, he sentan anonymous letter to the KGB
where he offered his services asa spy in exchange for $100,000
(11:15):
in cash.
To prove he's serious and thisisn't the ruse cooked up by the
FBI, he included yet again thename of three KGB agents
secretly working with the FBI.
Now, what Hanssen didn't knowat that time was that the other
(11:37):
mole, Aldridge Ames, had alreadyexposed his agents earlier that
year.
Still, hansen's letter addedweight to their exposure and
cemented their fate.
It was a twisted race betweenmoles.
Who could get secrets to theSoviets first.
But how did he get all thisintel?
(12:02):
It's not like the FBI wouldshare it freely with any
employee.
Well, his desk job, althoughboring to others, placed him
right at the heart of some ofthe Bureau's most sensitive
operations.
He was assigned to the BudgetOffice operations.
(12:24):
He was assigned to the budgetoffice, which gave him access to
an incredibly broad range ofclassified information,
especially around surveillanceand wiretapping.
Basically, it was his job tooversee many of those electronic
surveillance activities and hequickly developed a reputation
as one of the FBI's go-toexperts in computer systems.
(12:45):
He was in this role for a fewyears in New York until another
opportunity arose in 1987 tomove back to the FBI
headquarters in Washington.
Ironically, his new assignmentwas to investigate potential
moles.
He was specifically tasked tofigure out who had betrayed
(13:08):
those Soviet agents, and indoing so he managed to hide in
plain sight Hanssen.
Not only did he avoid exposinghimself, but he handed over the
entire mole hunting report,including the list of every
Soviet contact the FBI hadstraight to the KGB.
(13:30):
It was a stunning level ofinfiltration.
Then came 1989, one of Hanssen'smost damaging years.
Perhaps the most devastatingconsequence was his betrayal of
key double agents, men who werelater executed.
(13:50):
It's unclear if Hansen evertruly grasped the human cost of
his actions.
He also exposed an undergroundeavesdropping tunnel built by
the FBI beneath the Sovietembassy in Washington, a
multi-million dollar projectthat was rendered useless
(14:11):
overnight.
Hansen revealed how the UStracked Soviet satellites and
even exposed how Americancounterintelligence identified
foreign spies.
That year he compromised theFBI investigation into Felix
Bloch, a State Departmentofficial suspected of espionage.
(14:32):
Hanssen warned the KGB thatBloch was under surveillance,
prompting them to cut offcommunication.
And if all of that wasn'tenough, Hanssen also gave the
Soviet a complete list ofAmerican double agents.
Once more, this was no longerjust one man trading secrets for
(14:57):
cash.
This was a deeply embedded,deliberate betrayal, calculated
and cold.
And still no one knew.
By now he became extremelycautious and methodical.
He would often use secretlocations in parks or on the
bridges, where he would leaveclassified material and the
(15:21):
Soviets would later retrieve it.
This also became an obsessionfor him.
He would even miss on familytime to make a drop to please
his newfound friends.
Robert Hanssen never met hishandlers face to face.
They only communicated via code, encryption and misdirection,
(15:43):
all under the FBI's nose.
And they had no idea.
By 1991, the world was changing.
The Soviet Union, the verynation Hanssen had been feeding
secrets for over a decade,collapsed and just like that his
(16:08):
handlers disappeared.
Hansen went quiet.
There were no more dead drops,no more encrypted letters, no
envelopes filled with secretsexchanged for diamonds, just
silence.
Hansen didn't stop spyingbecause of remorse.
(16:28):
He stopped because he didn'tknow whom to trust anymore.
He made several attempts tocontact the GRU and others
across the years, but nothing'spanned out.
And with the Cold War now sortof over, the FBI had few reasons
(16:53):
to look for active spies.
Hanssen saw this as a time toregroup.
His only option was to remainin the FBI.
He even managed to climb theranks, even helping design
internal security measures.
He was placed incounterintelligence, tasked with
protecting US secrets fromforeign espionage.
(17:13):
The Fox was now guarding thehenhouse, but the silence didn't
last.
But the silence didn't lastbecause he was never going to
stop.
In 1999, nearly a decade afterhis last transmission, hanson
(17:37):
reached out to Russianintelligence, offering his
services again.
Ramon Garcia was back, and thistime more dangerous than ever.
By the year 2000,.
Whispers were circulatinginside the FBI.
(17:58):
Years earlier, severaldevastating counterintelligence
failures, the unmasking of USagents, the leaking of massive
classified material.
All had been blamed on a singlemole, Aldridge Ames.
But he was arrested in 1994.
(18:20):
So have they been looking inthe wrong direction?
They knew there was anothermole.
For a while, suspicion hadfallen on CIA officer Brian
Kelly, a man who had nothing todo with it.
He was followed, interrogated,surveilled, but in the end they
(18:42):
knew it wasn't Kelly In 2001,.
Years after quietly betrayinghis country, Hanssen made one
final mistake.
Not being caught for so manyyears, always flying under the
radar, no doubt made him cocky.
After re-establishing contactwith Russian intelligence, he
(19:06):
resumed his old methods Letterdrops hidden beneath footbridges
, classified documents sealed intrash bags and crypt creepy
notes signed R.
But this time the FBI wasfinally closing in.
They had launched a top-secrettask force along CIA back in 94,
(19:28):
focused solely on tracking downthe moon.
Eventually, a breakthrough camefor them.
They learned of the existenceof a file which could expose the
identity of the small.
All they had to do was to pay$7 million to a former KGB agent
(19:48):
, with the investigation notmoving anywhere they did.
The file had an incredibleamount of vague information but,
most crucial, it included apartial fingerprint, a voice
recording and the code nameRamon Garcia.
(20:28):
Fbi agent Michael Waguespack wastasked reviewing the recordings
related to Ramon Garcia untilsomething familiar he heard in
these recordings piqued hisinterest.
It was a phrase he heard whichhe couldn't place at first, just
a nagging feeling that he'dheard it before a reference to
General George's patterned,infamous speech on Japanese
(20:49):
soldiers.
It was oddly specific andstrangely familiar FBI analyst
Rob King also working on thistask, remembered it clearly.
Hanssen was known for quotingmilitary leaders and Patton was
(21:09):
one of his favourites.
With that connection madeWackus Pack played the tape
again, this time with a sharperear, and it clicked.
The voice was Robert Hanssen.
From there all the pieces fellinto place.
The FBI moved very quick andcross-referenced dates drops and
(21:36):
case details and everythingaligned with Hanssen's activity.
Then came the finalconfirmation Two fingerprints
lifted from a trash bag tied tothe espionage case.
When they ran the prints, therewas no doubt left they belonged
(21:57):
to Robert Hanssen.
On February 18, 2001, in FoxtonPark, virginia, robert Hanssen
walked across a small woodenbridge.
He knelt and placed a sealedpackage under a wooden platform.
(22:22):
His last dead drop.
He was arrested moments later.
A 25-year betrayal ended in aquiet park.
Hansen's reaction Reportedlycalm.
He looked at the agents andsimply said what took you so?
(22:43):
Long After his arrest, RobertHanssen was charged with 15
counts of espionage in whatwould become one of the most
devastating intelligencebreaches in US history.
(23:07):
To avoid the death penalty, hestruck a plea deal admitting
guilt in exchange for a lifesentence.
In July 2001, hansen wassentenced to life imprisonment
without the possibility ofparole and was transferred to
ADX Florence, the supermaxprison in Colorado, known for
(23:30):
housing the most dangerousinmates there.
Hanssen spent 23 hours a day innear total isolation inside a
small concrete cell.
He died in 2023, foundunresponsive in his cell at the
age of 79.
But long before his death, thedamage had already been done.
(23:57):
The FBI called him the mostdamaging spy in Bureau history.
His betrayal wasn't just aboutdocuments and data.
It was about people.
Hanssen exposed some of theUnited States' most critical
national security operations,from nuclear war defence
(24:20):
strategies to the identities ofdouble agents operating in the
Soviet Union.
Several of those agents wereexecuted as a direct result of
his actions.
Across the years, there wereseveral moments when Hanssen
raised suspicions, but each timehe slipped through the cracks.
(24:43):
In 1990s, his ownbrother-in-law, also an FBI
agent, reported odd behavior andunexplained cash, but nothing
came of it.
In the late 80s, colleaguesnoted a serious security breach
during a debriefing with aSoviet defector, again with no
(25:05):
consequences.
Even in 1993, when Hanssen wascaught hacking into a
colleague's computer under theguise of testing system security
, he was merely given a warning.
Time and time again, red flagswere waved, but no one looked
(25:25):
close enough.
The cost of Hanssen's espionagewas immeasurable.
It wasn't just secrets lost, itwas entire intelligence
operations compromised and livesdestroyed.
(25:55):
The Robert Hanssen case didn'tjust end with a life sentence.
It shook the foundation ofAmerican intelligence.
In its aftermath, the FBI wasforced to confront serious
vulnerabilities.
Sweeping reforms followed withtighter internal surveillance,
(26:16):
more rigorous background checksand stricter rules of who can
access classified information.
The Bureau began looking inwardwith a new level of scrutiny.
Hanssen didn't act out ofpolitical conviction or loyalty
to a foreign power.
According to his own confession, his motive was simple Money.
(26:37):
But his handlers saw somethingmore A man with a grandiose
sense of self-importance,someone who believed he was
untouchable, and for over twodecades he was In his mind.
He was the ultimate spy, justnot for the country he had sworn
(27:05):
to serve.
To this day, we may never knowthe full extent of the secrets
Hansen gave away, but what we doknow is chilling enough.
His actions compromisednational security, cost lives
and triggered a reckoning thatforever changed the U.
S.
protects its intelligence.
To stay updated on all thingsClue Trail, you can find us on
(27:44):
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And if you want to support thepodcast and get even more
content, check out our Patreon.
Members get access to anexclusive bonus episode every
month.
Just head over to Patreon andlook for ClueTrail.
Thank, you.
Welcome to Clue Trail, where every story is a mystery
and every clue pulls you deeperinto the unknown, from unsolved
cases and strange disappearancesto hidden histories and curious
twists of fate.
To hidden histories and curioustwists of fate, we piece
together fragments, searchingfor the truth or uncovering even
(00:31):
bigger questions.
Some clues reveal answers,others lead to greater mysteries
.
But one thing is certain Everytrail tells a story.
Are you ready to follow it?
Let's begin, and if you enjoyClue Trail, please take a moment
(00:55):
to leave us a rating or areview.
(01:20):
It helps more curious mindslike yours find the show.
Today's story is one ofdeception, ego and betrayal from
deep within.
Robert Hanssen wasn't someforeign agent who infiltrated
America.
He wore a suit, he went tochurch, he raised a family and
(01:44):
for over 20 years he quietlypassed America's most closely
guarded secrets to its greatestenemy.
Today, on Clue Trail, weunravel the chilling story of
Robert Hanssen, the man whoinfiltrated his own agency.
A double life built on lies,paranoia and more than 1.4
(02:07):
million dollars in cash anddiamonds.
This is the story of trust,shattered, lives lost and how
the most dangerous spy in FBIhistory almost got away with it.
(02:30):
Robert Philip Hanssen was bornon 18th of April 1944, in
Chicago.
On the surface, his life lookedtypical devoutly Catholic,
conservative and family-oriented.
But there was another side tothis suburban normal family.
(02:51):
Behind closed doors, his father, a Chicago police officer, was
emotionally abusive anddomineering.
Nothing Robert was doing wasever good enough for his father.
He grew up desperate for hisapproval.
He studied chemistry at KnoxCollege, then switched to
(03:15):
business, but it was lawenforcement that called to him.
In 1968, Robert Hanssen beganhis career in law enforcement by
joining the Chicago PoliceDepartment.
No doubt he wanted to follow inhis father's footsteps.
Starting out as a uniformedpatrol officer, he quickly
advanced to a position withinthe Organized Crime Control Unit
(03:37):
.
During this time in this role,he had the opportunity to hone
in his skills in surveillanceand undercover operations,
experience that would laterprove invaluable in his
espionage activities.
He first applied to the FBI in1972, but he was initially
(04:00):
turned down due to agency budgetconstraints.
Refusing to give up, he pursuedfurther education and earned a
law degree from NorthwesternUniversity in 1974.
His determination eventuallypaid off.
In 1976, Robert Hanssen was anFBI agent.
(04:21):
He began his FBI careerhandling general criminal
investigations.
He then transferred to New YorkCity in 1979.
That is where he stepped into aworld of counterintelligence, a
move that would later changeeverything.
From the start he stood out.
(04:54):
He was no doubt intelligent,highly educated and deeply
interested in law enforcementand national security, but he
was also socially awkward,secretive and deeply mistrustful
.
Even among colleagues he was aloner.
(05:16):
His goal was to be a fieldagent, to be in the middle of
action, but again and again hewas overlooked, even when he was
eagerly putting his hand up.
His job now was to view theaction from the sidelines.
He was tasked to analyzeintelligence, track suspicious
(05:38):
activity and assess potentialrisks to the country.
Assess potential risks to thecountry.
Ironically, he worked in thevery division responsible for
tracking foreign spies.
So now left frustrated,overlooked all his past, for
promotion, hansen took ashocking and dangerous step.
(06:01):
He approached the Sovietembassy whilst on a work trip to
Washington DC and offered hisservices as a spy.
(06:23):
Robert Hanssen's first act oftreason wasn't the result of
blackmail or even coercion.
It was a calculated choice.
In 1979, just three years afterjoining the FBI, hansen made
his first anonymous approach toSoviet intelligence.
(06:43):
It all started when he mailed apackage to the Soviet GRU, the
Military Intelligence Agency.
Inside that envelope there werehighly classified US
intelligence.
During this first period ofespionage, he provided the
(07:04):
Soviets with an alarming amountof sensitive information.
But perhaps his mostdevastating betrayal was leaking
the identity of a Russiandouble agent like Dmitry
Polyakov.
He was a top-ranking Sovietgeneral and a long-time CIA
informant.
Polyakov has spent yearssupplying US intelligence with
(07:29):
invaluable information, thanksto both Hanssen and later CIA
mole Aldrich Ames.
Polyakov was eventuallyarrested by the Soviets in 1986
and executed two years later.
Robert Hanssen didn't take thisextreme step for ideology.
(07:50):
He wasn't a Soviet sympathizer.
If anything, he was anultra-conservative Catholic who
once told a friend thatcommunism was evil.
For him, this was aboutsuperiority.
It was about his ego proving heis above others, more
(08:12):
intelligent, more cunning,proving to himself that he
shouldn't have been overlooked.
And eventually it was aboutmoney.
That he shouldn't have beenoverlooked.
And eventually it was aboutmoney.
By that point, Robert Hanssenhad a growing family, three
children he had to support, andNew York wasn't cheap.
In exchange for his information, the Soviets paid him just over
(08:35):
$20,000.
He used the money to help payoff Deb and support his family.
That was only the beginning.
The most dangerous part he wasnever caught doing this in that
period Well, at least not by theFBI.
You see, hiding $20,000 in cashwouldn't be easy.
(08:58):
It's not like you can depositthem in a bank account.
That would raise suspicions.
So Hanssen resorted in stashingsome of this cash in the garage
and only spending the money ongroceries, gas and generally
things that wouldn't raisesuspicions.
He was careful not to livebeyond his means.
(09:19):
All was fine.
He was flying under the radarUntil one morning when he had to
come clean about what he hasdone to his wife Bonnie.
He was in his garage thatmorning.
When she caught him sneakingaround, being all suspicious,
(09:39):
her first thought he is hidingevidence of an affair.
But when he came clean to whathe was hiding, nothing could
have prepared her for that.
He lied, saying he only sharedan important intel, nothing that
would cause harm.
He said it is only for money.
He was desperate to provide forthem.
(10:01):
He won't do it again.
Bonnie made him promise to stop.
He cannot do this again and heneeds to confess to their past.
So confessed he did.
He kept his head down and hestopped spying.
Well, at least for a while.
(10:25):
By the time 1985 rolled around,things were getting a bit hard
in the Hanssen household.
He was struggling financially.
The FBI.
Salary wasn't as high as hemight have expected, and being
overlooked again and again forthe jobs he wanted only made him
angrier.
So he returned to espionage,but this time he was even more
(10:51):
calculated.
Instead of contacting the GRU,he switched to the big guns, the
KGB, his code name Ramon Garcia.
That October in 1985, he sentan anonymous letter to the KGB
where he offered his services asa spy in exchange for $100,000
(11:15):
in cash.
To prove he's serious and thisisn't the ruse cooked up by the
FBI, he included yet again thename of three KGB agents
secretly working with the FBI.
Now, what Hanssen didn't knowat that time was that the other
(11:37):
mole, Aldridge Ames, had alreadyexposed his agents earlier that
year.
Still, hansen's letter addedweight to their exposure and
cemented their fate.
It was a twisted race betweenmoles.
Who could get secrets to theSoviets first.
But how did he get all thisintel?
(12:02):
It's not like the FBI wouldshare it freely with any
employee.
Well, his desk job, althoughboring to others, placed him
right at the heart of some ofthe Bureau's most sensitive
operations.
He was assigned to the BudgetOffice operations.
(12:24):
He was assigned to the budgetoffice, which gave him access to
an incredibly broad range ofclassified information,
especially around surveillanceand wiretapping.
Basically, it was his job tooversee many of those electronic
surveillance activities and hequickly developed a reputation
as one of the FBI's go-toexperts in computer systems.
(12:45):
He was in this role for a fewyears in New York until another
opportunity arose in 1987 tomove back to the FBI
headquarters in Washington.
Ironically, his new assignmentwas to investigate potential
moles.
He was specifically tasked tofigure out who had betrayed
(13:08):
those Soviet agents, and indoing so he managed to hide in
plain sight Hanssen.
Not only did he avoid exposinghimself, but he handed over the
entire mole hunting report,including the list of every
Soviet contact the FBI hadstraight to the KGB.
(13:30):
It was a stunning level ofinfiltration.
Then came 1989, one of Hanssen'smost damaging years.
Perhaps the most devastatingconsequence was his betrayal of
key double agents, men who werelater executed.
(13:50):
It's unclear if Hansen evertruly grasped the human cost of
his actions.
He also exposed an undergroundeavesdropping tunnel built by
the FBI beneath the Sovietembassy in Washington, a
multi-million dollar projectthat was rendered useless
(14:11):
overnight.
Hansen revealed how the UStracked Soviet satellites and
even exposed how Americancounterintelligence identified
foreign spies.
That year he compromised theFBI investigation into Felix
Bloch, a State Departmentofficial suspected of espionage.
(14:32):
Hanssen warned the KGB thatBloch was under surveillance,
prompting them to cut offcommunication.
And if all of that wasn'tenough, Hanssen also gave the
Soviet a complete list ofAmerican double agents.
Once more, this was no longerjust one man trading secrets for
(14:57):
cash.
This was a deeply embedded,deliberate betrayal, calculated
and cold.
And still no one knew.
By now he became extremelycautious and methodical.
He would often use secretlocations in parks or on the
bridges, where he would leaveclassified material and the
(15:21):
Soviets would later retrieve it.
This also became an obsessionfor him.
He would even miss on familytime to make a drop to please
his newfound friends.
Robert Hanssen never met hishandlers face to face.
They only communicated via code, encryption and misdirection,
(15:43):
all under the FBI's nose.
And they had no idea.
By 1991, the world was changing.
The Soviet Union, the verynation Hanssen had been feeding
secrets for over a decade,collapsed and just like that his
(16:08):
handlers disappeared.
Hansen went quiet.
There were no more dead drops,no more encrypted letters, no
envelopes filled with secretsexchanged for diamonds, just
silence.
Hansen didn't stop spyingbecause of remorse.
(16:28):
He stopped because he didn'tknow whom to trust anymore.
He made several attempts tocontact the GRU and others
across the years, but nothing'spanned out.
And with the Cold War now sortof over, the FBI had few reasons
(16:53):
to look for active spies.
Hanssen saw this as a time toregroup.
His only option was to remainin the FBI.
He even managed to climb theranks, even helping design
internal security measures.
He was placed incounterintelligence, tasked with
protecting US secrets fromforeign espionage.
(17:13):
The Fox was now guarding thehenhouse, but the silence didn't
last.
But the silence didn't lastbecause he was never going to
stop.
In 1999, nearly a decade afterhis last transmission, hanson
(17:37):
reached out to Russianintelligence, offering his
services again.
Ramon Garcia was back, and thistime more dangerous than ever.
By the year 2000,.
Whispers were circulatinginside the FBI.
(17:58):
Years earlier, severaldevastating counterintelligence
failures, the unmasking of USagents, the leaking of massive
classified material.
All had been blamed on a singlemole, Aldridge Ames.
But he was arrested in 1994.
(18:20):
So have they been looking inthe wrong direction?
They knew there was anothermole.
For a while, suspicion hadfallen on CIA officer Brian
Kelly, a man who had nothing todo with it.
He was followed, interrogated,surveilled, but in the end they
(18:42):
knew it wasn't Kelly In 2001,.
Years after quietly betrayinghis country, Hanssen made one
final mistake.
Not being caught for so manyyears, always flying under the
radar, no doubt made him cocky.
After re-establishing contactwith Russian intelligence, he
(19:06):
resumed his old methods Letterdrops hidden beneath footbridges
, classified documents sealed intrash bags and crypt creepy
notes signed R.
But this time the FBI wasfinally closing in.
They had launched a top-secrettask force along CIA back in 94,
(19:28):
focused solely on tracking downthe moon.
Eventually, a breakthrough camefor them.
They learned of the existenceof a file which could expose the
identity of the small.
All they had to do was to pay$7 million to a former KGB agent
(19:48):
, with the investigation notmoving anywhere they did.
The file had an incredibleamount of vague information but,
most crucial, it included apartial fingerprint, a voice
recording and the code nameRamon Garcia.
(20:28):
Fbi agent Michael Waguespack wastasked reviewing the recordings
related to Ramon Garcia untilsomething familiar he heard in
these recordings piqued hisinterest.
It was a phrase he heard whichhe couldn't place at first, just
a nagging feeling that he'dheard it before a reference to
General George's patterned,infamous speech on Japanese
(20:49):
soldiers.
It was oddly specific andstrangely familiar FBI analyst
Rob King also working on thistask, remembered it clearly.
Hanssen was known for quotingmilitary leaders and Patton was
(21:09):
one of his favourites.
With that connection madeWackus Pack played the tape
again, this time with a sharperear, and it clicked.
The voice was Robert Hanssen.
From there all the pieces fellinto place.
The FBI moved very quick andcross-referenced dates drops and
(21:36):
case details and everythingaligned with Hanssen's activity.
Then came the finalconfirmation Two fingerprints
lifted from a trash bag tied tothe espionage case.
When they ran the prints, therewas no doubt left they belonged
(21:57):
to Robert Hanssen.
On February 18, 2001, in FoxtonPark, virginia, robert Hanssen
walked across a small woodenbridge.
He knelt and placed a sealedpackage under a wooden platform.
(22:22):
His last dead drop.
He was arrested moments later.
A 25-year betrayal ended in aquiet park.
Hansen's reaction Reportedlycalm.
He looked at the agents andsimply said what took you so?
(22:43):
Long After his arrest, RobertHanssen was charged with 15
counts of espionage in whatwould become one of the most
devastating intelligencebreaches in US history.
(23:07):
To avoid the death penalty, hestruck a plea deal admitting
guilt in exchange for a lifesentence.
In July 2001, hansen wassentenced to life imprisonment
without the possibility ofparole and was transferred to
ADX Florence, the supermaxprison in Colorado, known for
(23:30):
housing the most dangerousinmates there.
Hanssen spent 23 hours a day innear total isolation inside a
small concrete cell.
He died in 2023, foundunresponsive in his cell at the
age of 79.
But long before his death, thedamage had already been done.
(23:57):
The FBI called him the mostdamaging spy in Bureau history.
His betrayal wasn't just aboutdocuments and data.
It was about people.
Hanssen exposed some of theUnited States' most critical
national security operations,from nuclear war defence
(24:20):
strategies to the identities ofdouble agents operating in the
Soviet Union.
Several of those agents wereexecuted as a direct result of
his actions.
Across the years, there wereseveral moments when Hanssen
raised suspicions, but each timehe slipped through the cracks.
(24:43):
In 1990s, his ownbrother-in-law, also an FBI
agent, reported odd behavior andunexplained cash, but nothing
came of it.
In the late 80s, colleaguesnoted a serious security breach
during a debriefing with aSoviet defector, again with no
(25:05):
consequences.
Even in 1993, when Hanssen wascaught hacking into a
colleague's computer under theguise of testing system security
, he was merely given a warning.
Time and time again, red flagswere waved, but no one looked
(25:25):
close enough.
The cost of Hanssen's espionagewas immeasurable.
It wasn't just secrets lost, itwas entire intelligence
operations compromised and livesdestroyed.
(25:55):
The Robert Hanssen case didn'tjust end with a life sentence.
It shook the foundation ofAmerican intelligence.
In its aftermath, the FBI wasforced to confront serious
vulnerabilities.
Sweeping reforms followed withtighter internal surveillance,
(26:16):
more rigorous background checksand stricter rules of who can
access classified information.
The Bureau began looking inwardwith a new level of scrutiny.
Hanssen didn't act out ofpolitical conviction or loyalty
to a foreign power.
According to his own confession, his motive was simple Money.
(26:37):
But his handlers saw somethingmore A man with a grandiose
sense of self-importance,someone who believed he was
untouchable, and for over twodecades he was In his mind.
He was the ultimate spy, justnot for the country he had sworn
(27:05):
to serve.
To this day, we may never knowthe full extent of the secrets
Hansen gave away, but what we doknow is chilling enough.
His actions compromisednational security, cost lives
and triggered a reckoning thatforever changed the U.
S.
protects its intelligence.
To stay updated on all thingsClue Trail, you can find us on
(27:44):
Instagram, facebook and TikTokon Clue Trail Podcast.
And if you want to support thepodcast and get even more
content, check out our Patreon.
Members get access to anexclusive bonus episode every
month.
Just head over to Patreon andlook for ClueTrail.
Thank, you.
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