Hanssen Allegedly Told Wife of Activities
June 16 -- Accused FBI spy Robert Hanssen told his wife about his activities as early as 1980, well before prosecutors claim he started passing secrets to Moscow.
According to sources familiar with the conversation Hanssen allegedly had with his wife Bonnie, the encounter occurred at their Scarsdale, New York home after his wife confronted him.
Hanssen allegedly told his wife he had not given the Kremlin any important information and that he was simply trying to dupe the Russians who had already paid him $20,000.
Promised to Confess
Hanssen promised he would go to his church and discuss the matter with his Catholic Priest. He also promised to give the money to Mother Teresa's charity.
But no one alerted the FBI about Hanssen's secret for more than two decades. Religion scholars say the Priest was under no obligation to tell authorities.
"He would have a duty to the church as well as Mr. Hanssen, " said Sherman Cohn, professor at Georgetown University Law Center. "The priest has an obligation to keep his conversation private."
As for Hanssen's wife, government sources say she was shocked when FBI agents showed up in February after arresting her husband for espionage.
A Need for Cooperation
Hanssen's attorney, Plato Cacheris, says Mrs. Hanssen has "absolutely no complicity in any of his alleged activities."
Law enforcement officials believe that and have no plans to charge her with espionage.
Still, the new revelation — that Hanssen could have been spying six years longer than previously known — shows why the government desperately needs to cut a deal for his cooperation.
"It's absolutely essential that the U.S. government knows what has gone over," said former FBI Counterintelligence Official Harry Skip Brandon.
As part of a tentative deal recently reached between Hanssen and the justice department, he is expected to offer some insight as early as next week and the Justice Department will not seek the death penalty.
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