FBI Turncoat Gets Life

Former FBI agent Robert Hanssen was sentenced to life in prison for espionage against the United States.

Hanssen, who was arrested last year and charged with selling intelligence to Moscow for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds, apologized for his behavior and said, "I am shamed by it."

The 58-year-old Hanssen, standing in a green prison uniform before U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton, thanked his family, friends and co-workers who have expressed support.

"I am humbled by your generosity, your goodness and your charity," Hanssen said to a hushed, packed courtroom audience that included many of his former FBI colleagues.

Hanssen avoided the death penalty after reaching an agreement with government prosecutors. Under terms of the agreement, he had to cooperate fully with investigators and truthfully discuss his espionage, which spanned more than two decades and caused the death of at least two agents in Russia.

"I apologize for my behavior. I am shamed by it," Hanssen told Judge Hilton. "I have opened the door for calumny against my totally innocent wife and children. I have hurt so many deeply."

The judge told Hanssen he believed that life in prison was appropriate under sentencing guidelines and under a plea agreement that Hanssen reached with prosecutors. The sentence will not allow parole or early release.

The criminal sentencing closes a chapter in one of America's most-damaging espionage scandals.

Hanssen told investigators that security at the FBI was so lax that he could walk out of the building with classified files that he gave to the Russians. He revealed the identities of two intelligence contacts in Russia who were later executed.

"He always looked upon himself as smarter than anyone else. But he really turned out to be pretty low scum," former Justice Department prosecutor John Martin told CBS News Correspondent Stephanie Lambidakis.

The effects of what authorities describe as Hanssen's extraordinary betrayal will resonate for years through the FBI and the U.S. intelligence community. Chastened FBI officials already have broadened the use of lie-detectors and financial checks into the backgrounds of agents.

Before Hanssen was sentenced, Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows told the judge that Hanssen "broke every major promise he made" and that he "took the nation's most critical secrets ... and used them as personal merchandise. He was in essence the cruelest kind of thief."

Hanssen agreed to describe his activities to U.S. investigators, who questioned him roughly 75 times during the past 10 months.

"There is no way that I can justify what I have done," Hanssen told investigators during those interviews. "It's criminal and deceitful and wrong and sinful."

Sentencing day found some investigators with lingering doubts about whether Hanssen has yet to come clean about all of his espionage and the motives for his actions.

"When you've lived a life of deception, the truth is hard to find," said Martin, the former Justice Department prosecutor who specialized in catching spies.

Hanssen's attorney, Plato Cacheris, argues that Hanssen has fully cooperated in the investigation and was able to reveal security breaches which were news to the FBI.

Hanssen himself has furthermore attempted to portray the damage from his spying as less serious than it could have been.

"I could have been a devastating spy, but I didn't want to be a devastating spy," he said. "I wanted to get a little money and to get out of it."

Under the same plea agreement, Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, also was permitted to receive the survivor's portion of his FBI pension and keep the family's home in Vienna, Va.

Authorities said the Russians paid Hanssen with two Rolex watches and $600,000 in cash and diamonds, and promised that $800,000 more had been deposited in a Moscow bank on his family's behalf. The FBI also recovered $50,000 from the Russians when it arrested Hanssen in February 2001.

Hanssen's spying peaked at the height of the Cold War, and officials blame partly on his disclosures the deaths of at least three spies overseas, including a Russian Army general code-named "Top Hat" who was one of America's best intelligence sources and who was executed in 1986.

"For his betrayal of our country, and for the unpardonable consequences of his misconduct, Hanssen deserves to forfeit his right ever to live again within our community and within our society," Bellows told the judge in court documents.

Hanssen's plea agreement precluded authorities from seeking the death penalty unless he stopped cooperating with investigators.

He is asking to be sentenced to the Allenwood Federal Prison in Pennsylvania, which is already home to two other convicted spies: John Walker Junior and Aldrich Ames.