Prosecutor Says Miller Was ‘Ripe’ for Spy Role

Former FBI Agent Richard W. Miller’s alleged agreement to pass secret FBI documents to the Soviet Union was only a beginning step on a “road to oblivion,” in which he would have been “mercilessly” used as a Soviet mole inside the FBI, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday.

U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner, personally handling his first case since becoming the chief federal prosecutor in Los Angeles more than a year ago, made his comments in opening statements at the start of Miller’s espionage trial in Los Angeles federal court.

Miller, the first FBI agent ever charged as a Soviet spy, sat with his back to a packed courtroom, scribbling notes on a legal pad, as Bonner portrayed him as a sexually promiscuous and financially troubled man who was alienated from his job, church and family and “ripe” for recruitment as a Soviet agent.

Miller’s arrest last Oct. 2 on charges of passing secret FBI documents to convicted Soviet spies Svetlana and Nikolai Ogorodnikov came only a week before Miller and Svetlana Ogorodnikova planned to travel to Warsaw for a meeting with Soviet KGB officials that would have provided the basis for future espionage activities, Bonner said.

Sent Back

“After this agent was thoroughly compromised, he would be mercilessly pumped for information by the KGB outside the United States and sent back as a Soviet spy,” Bonner said. “Only through the alert efforts of the FBI was the ultimate KGB objective thwarted: the planting of a mole inside the FBI.”

Miller, 48, has claimed that he became involved with the Ogorodnikovs last year in an effort to salvage a career that Bonner described Tuesday as “mediocre at best.” The ex-agent’s defense is based on the claim that he was only pretending to be interested in espionage activities so that he could use the Ogorodnikovs to penetrate a Soviet KGB spy network.

In outlining the government’s case against Miller, Bonner charged that Miller had admitted to FBI agents prior to his arrest that he had provided Ogorodnikova with “one or more classified documents” that she gave to officials at the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco during a trip with Miller last Aug. 25.

Intelligence Goals

The only document identified as having been passed to the Soviet Union in the Miller case was referred to by Bonner as “Reporting Guidance: Foreign Intelligence Information,” a document also known as the “Positive Intelligence Reporting Guide.” It outlines basic U.S. intelligence objectives throughout the world.

Ogorodnikova, 35, who pleaded guilty with her husband June 25 to conspiring with Miller to pass documents to the KGB, was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Ogorodnikov, 52, received an eight-year sentence, which he is now challenging on grounds that his guilty plea was coerced.

Bonner, describing the Ogorodnikovs as Soviet agents who had performed minor chores for the KGB before meeting Miller, said they were controlled by Alexander Grishin, a vice consul at the Soviet Consulate who was actually a KGB officer operating under diplomatic immunity.

Flown to Moscow

After Ogorodnikova passed the “Positive Intelligence Reporting Guide” to the KGB in San Francisco, along with Miller’s FBI credentials, the document was flown to Moscow, where it was checked to make sure it was authentic, Bonner told the jury.

“It is the KGB’s practice to evaluate the documents in Moscow,” Bonner explained. “The next step in the recruitment of a new agent is to arrange a meeting with KGB officers outside the United States, in this case Vienna or Warsaw.

After Moscow’s evaluation of the documents submitted by Ogorodnikova, according to Bonner, the next step for Moscow was to arrange Miller’s planned trip to Warsaw. Bonner said the plans were coordinated by Ogorodnikova and Grishin, who telephoned her three times last September in secretive conversations referring to their “mutual acquaintances” and travel plans involving her new “friend.”

First Suspected

Bonner said the calls from Grishin were monitored and recorded by the FBI in a massive surveillance operation that began last Sept. 1, after Miller’s espionage activities were first suspected.

Bonner said the conversations between Grishin and Ogorodnikova were conducted in a “plain language code.” He told the jury that Miller also spoke in code when talking to Ogorodnikova about the planned trip to Eastern Europe.

In one Sept. 16 conversation, played for the jury, Miller asked Ogorodnikova if she had “seen the doctor.” Bonner said that was a reference to Grishin, and “a rather clever one at that,” in view of the fact that Ogorodnikova had a bad cold at the time of the call.

U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon, who had scheduled Tuesday’s session to begin at 10 a.m., delayed the start of Bonner’s opening statement for more than an hour to conduct closed hearings in connection with national security aspects of the case. Bonner will conclude his opening statement today.