Plea Bargain May Be in Works in FBI Spy Case

With the prospect of avoiding a potential death penalty for accused FBI spy Robert Philip Hanssen, federal prosecutors have coaxed his lawyers into discussing how the case might be settled with a plea agreement.

Talks have proceeded sporadically in recent days, but “no firm agreement is in sight,” according to a source familiar with negotiations. What is likely, the source said, is that more details in the case against Hanssen will be revealed in a formal indictment later this month.

Hanssen, an FBI veteran who specialized in Russian counterintelligence, was arrested Feb. 18 based on an FBI affidavit that alleged he spied for Moscow for much of the last 15 years. Since then his lawyers have been given access to hundreds of government documents and secret letters written by Hanssen that support his prosecution.

He is accused of spying in exchange for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.

Plato Cacheris, Hanssen’s principal defense attorney, declined comment on any negotiations. He has previously said his client intends to plead not guilty at a preliminary hearing scheduled for May 21. Assistant U.S. Atty. Randy I. Bellows also had no comment, his office said.

While a plea bargain in the face of what prosecutors call “overwhelming” evidence could help Hanssen avoid capital punishment, an agreement could prove attractive to the government as well. First, it would provide a clean and relatively quick way to avoid a public airing of sensitive national security information surrounding what has become the worst spy scandal in the FBI’s history.

Second, it would allow intelligence officials to plunge more quickly into the laborious task of debriefing Hanssen and to figure out exactly what secrets he may have given the Russians, experts said.

While the FBI’s affidavit details Hanssen’s contacts with Russian agents in the Washington area in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it is largely silent about the period from 1992 to mid-1999, suggesting there may be significant holes in the government’s knowledge that only the defendant could fill in. Full cooperation with U.S. intelligence officials in debriefing an accused spy is a standard part of any plea agreement.

But any agreement that is ultimately reached between Hanssen and his lawyers and chief prosecutor Bellows would have to pass muster with Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, authorities said.

Ashcroft, in response to questions, has declined to say if he would press for the death penalty against Hanssen or if he would waive it in event of a plea bargain.

Although the death penalty for espionage traditionally did not apply in peacetime, Congress revived it after the 1994 case of CIA spy Aldrich H. Ames, limiting it to spies who reveal U.S. nuclear secrets or cause the death of American secret agents.

The FBI believes that Hanssen helped the Russians unmask several “moles,” leading to the execution of two double agents working for the United States. But Ames apparently disclosed their identities to the Russians in 1985, months before Hanssen could have confirmed their names.

The spying revelations have prompted Ashcroft to order a top-to-bottom review of gaps in the FBI’s internal security procedures. The review is headed by former FBI and CIA Director William H. Webster.

On Wednesday, Ashcroft named six legal and national security experts to serve on Webster’s commission. They are Clifford L. Alexander Jr., a former secretary of the Army who has served in four presidential administrations; Griffin B. Bell, attorney general in the Jimmy Carter administration; William S. Cohen, Defense secretary under President Clinton and a former senator; Robert B. Fiske Jr., former U.S. attorney and a special counsel in the Whitewater affair; Thomas S. Foley, the former House majority leader; and Carla Anderson Hills, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the Gerald R. Ford administration.

“That is a very high-powered group, and I think it indicates both the tremendous seriousness with which the attorney general is viewing this case and the fact that he wants a broad diversity of opinion on what to do about it,” said Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Burbank), who prosecuted the infamous spy case of FBI agent Richard W. Miller in Los Angeles a decade ago.

Even before their review is completed, outgoing FBI Director Louis J. Freeh has already agreed to subject hundreds of additional bureau agents to polygraph tests--a move he had long resisted. Hanssen was never tested during his counterintelligence service.

Ashcroft met with members of the House law enforcement caucus last week, and some members were concerned that a deal with Hanssen might allow his family to retain his retirement benefits, said Schiff, who attended the meeting.

Ashcroft did not address that concern but “indicated that he would ensure that any resolution of the case yielded the maximum possible deterrent and only if he were persuaded it was in the national security interest would he consider anything less than that,” Schiff said.