Robert Hanssen, the former FBI agent turned spy whom the bureau describes as the most damaging in its history, was found dead in his prison cell on Monday, US authorities said.
Hanssen, 79, was sentenced in 2002 to life in prison after pleading guilty to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years.
Prison staff-initiated life-saving measures after finding Hanssen unresponsive on Monday morning but were not successful, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. It did not provide a cause of death.
Hanssen joined the FBI in 1976 and began selling classified information to the Soviet Union in 1985, according to the FBI's website.
By the time of his arrest in 2001, he had been compensated with more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds and diamonds, in exchange for compromising numerous human sources, intelligence techniques and classified US documents, the FBI's website says.
Hanssen, 79, was sentenced in 2002 to life in prison after pleading guilty to spying for the Soviet Union and later Russia for over 20 years.
Prison staff-initiated life-saving measures after finding Hanssen unresponsive on Monday morning but were not successful, the Bureau of Prisons said in a statement. It did not provide a cause of death.
Hanssen joined the FBI in 1976 and began selling classified information to the Soviet Union in 1985, according to the FBI's website.
By the time of his arrest in 2001, he had been compensated with more than $1.4 million in cash, bank funds and diamonds, in exchange for compromising numerous human sources, intelligence techniques and classified US documents, the FBI's website says.
Hanssen's thought process made lots of sense: Why don't I endanger the security of over 300 million Americans and frankly the entire world AND show extreme disloyalty to my country and employers, in exchange for some extra money. I might end up spending the rest of my life in a cage like an animal but it is worth the risk. After all, I will have extra money that I don't really need because my salary from the FBI pays my bills.
WOW! I totally get it.
Since Mr. Hanssen was sentenced to four life sentences they are waiting for him to be revived at which point he will start serving his second life sentence.
In the meantime a statement from the White House said: "GOOD RIDDANCE. It was ABOUT TIME so it wasn't an UNTIMELY death as they always say but a timely one. That turncoat was living off taxpayers money in jail for TOO LONG."
Experts suggest that he died of Covid b/c that is the "thing" to die from. But it might have been absolute boredom or being grossed out from his jail food.
