FBI Probe of Accused Spy to Be Told Again in Court

The final days of Operation Whipworm--the FBI’s code name for its investigation of Richard W. Miller--will be recounted in a Los Angeles federal courtroom this week as prosecutors near the halfway mark of their second attempt at convicting the former FBI agent of espionage.

After nine days of testimony in Miller’s second espionage trial, the jury already has heard 40 prosecution witnesses tell of the former counterintelligence agent’s romance with convicted Soviet agent Svetlana Ogorodnikova and meetings with her during the summer of 1984.

The focus last week was on the early failures and successes of the massive FBI counterespionage investigation that began on Sept. 1, 1984, a few days after a trip to the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco by Miller and Ogorodnikova.

According to the government, Ogorodnikova took Miller’s FBI credentials as well as a secret FBI document into the Soviet Consulate with her on the trip to San Francisco, which is believed to have triggered the subsequent investigation.

Ogorodnikova, 35, and her husband, Nikolai Ogorodnikov, 53, pleaded guilty last June to conspiring with Miller to pass the secret document to the Soviet Union and are serving prison sentences.

But Miller, 49, has maintained his innocence since his arrest Oct. 2, 1984, contending that he was involved with the Russian emigre couple in the hope of salvaging a dismal 20-year career by becoming the first FBI agent to ever infiltrate a Soviet spy ring. His first trial ended in a deadlocked jury last Nov. 6.

Despite the FBI’s suspicions that one of its agents might be working for the Soviets, the testimony last week revealed that the early days of Operation Whipworm produced little confirmation of any espionage involvement.

Unsuccessful Pursuit

On Sept. 4, 1984, FBI surveillance agents suffered an early disappointment after following Ogorodnikova into a Hollywood department store and observing her in an apparent clandestine conversation with an unidentified man who met her at a shoe counter, then disappeared from the store.

Hoping to learn the man’s identity, one agent followed him out of the store, but lost track of the man after pursuing him for a few blocks.

A week later, however, FBI agents monitoring the telephones of Ogorodnikova and Miller got their first major break in the case when they listened to a conversation between Ogorodnikova and an unidentified male speaking in Russian.

The Russian, later identified as Soviet Vice Consul Aleksandr Grishin of San Francisco, referred to plans for a meeting in Warsaw with Ogorodnikova and an unidentified “friend,” telling her in a simple code used by KGB agents that her unidentified friend “should bring everything he can” on the trip to Warsaw.

During the following week, the FBI monitored more conservations between Grishin and Ogorodnikova, also following Miller as he met with the Russian emigre at various Los Angeles locations.

Secret Affair Told

The testimony this week will turn to the final days of Miller’s involvement with Ogorodnikova before he asked for a Sept. 27 meeting with one of his FBI superiors, P. Bryce Christensen, to announce that he had been secretly involved with her for months in an effort to penetrate the Soviet KGB.

Disbelieving Miller’s story, Christensen nonetheless took down a lengthy statement by Miller and told him that agents from Washington would be in touch with him the next day. A five-day period of interrogation followed, leading to Miller’s arrest Oct. 2, 1984, as the first FBI agent in history to be charged as a spy.

In contrast to the first Miller trial, the testimony in Miller’s retrial has been delivered to an almost empty courtroom, except for U.S. District Judge David V. Kenyon, the jury, and an occasional spectator.

U.S. Atty. Robert C. Bonner and Assistant U.S. Atty. Russell Hayman, who prosecuted the first Miller trial, have changed their strategy only slightly, relying primarily on the testimony still to come from six FBI agents, an FBI polygraph expert and one of Miller’s former girlfriends that Miller admitted to each of them that he had passed at least one secret document to Ogorodnikova.

Focus of Testimony

One of the many statements made to the FBI by Miller before his arrest was that he had left his FBI credentials and two classified documents, including one known as the FBI’s Positive Intelligence Reporting Guide, with Ogorodnikova in her car before she dropped him off in San Francisco to visit the Soviet Consulate. However, he now claims that he never passed her any secret information.

This week’s testimony will focus on how the FBI tracked Grishin in San Francisco and substantiated that he was in fact a KGB agent who was making the telephone arrangements with Ogorodnikova for the planned trip to Warsaw. Agents are also expected to testify about a Sept. 26 shopping trip by Miller and Ogorodnikova in preparation for the trip to Warsaw.

Miller’s lawyers, Joel Levine and Stanley Greenberg, have indicated in court documents that they might call Ogorodnikova and possibly even Miller in the second trial, but they have refused to confirm whether they will actually do so, citing a gag order issued by Kenyon which prevents them from discussing any aspects of the case.