Event Recap | Witness to History: The Investigation of Robert Hanssen

Hosted by the International Spy Museum and sponsored by Target, the National Law Enforcement Museum's event, Witness to History: The Investigation of Robert Hanssen, took place last evening. About 170 guests attended—the largest crowd at a Witness to History event to date—and Peter Earnest, the Founding Executive Director of the International Spy Museum, welcomed the nearly full auditorium, saying, "the government is closed, but the Spy Museum is not." He then introduced the moderator, National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund Chairman & CEO Craig W. Floyd, to begin the discussion with panelists, Section Chief Mike Rochford, FBI, Russian Overseas Espionage, Ret.; and David Wise, Author of Spy: The Inside Story of How the FBI's Robert Hanssen Betrayed America.


The panelists—with help from audience members such as Dr. David L. Charney, who was Hanssen's psychiatrist—shed light on what motivated ex-FBI agent and Russian spy, Robert Hanssen, to sell high-level U.S. secrets to the former Soviet Union and Russia for over 20 years.

Hanssen was the son of a Chicago law enforcement officer (who specialized in catching suspected communists), and went on to become a Russian spy, just three years after joining the FBI. He was a family man and devout Catholic, who also became involved with a stripper. Mr. Wise summed it up, "Robert Hanssen is a very complex man, and a bundle of contradictions." Dr. Charney, who was given permission by Hanssen to convey his medical findings to the intelligence community as a teaching opportunity, agreed with this assertion. He said "compartmentalization" was a factor in Hanssen's ability to function in starkly contradictory roles.

Mr. Rochford described the process of finally pinning Hanssen as the culprit who had leaked hundreds of highly sensitive documents to the Russians for a long period of time. He referred to some clues that, in hindsight, may have led the FBI's investigation to Hanssen, as "puffs of smoke" that, at the time, did not amount to any significant proof of his guilt. He also confirmed that Hanssen was never polygraphed until he was caught, and that the FBI now polygraphs upon employment—one of the improvements that resulted from this case.

Thanks to the collective efforts of the FBI, CIA, Department of State, and the Justice Department, Hanssen was arrested in 2001 and convicted of espionage. He is currently at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, where he is held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day (with one hour of exercise permitted).

Learn more about the National Law Enforcement Museum's Witness to History panel discussion series, and check out recaps and photos from past events.