A Spy in Plain Sight: The Inside Story of the FBI and Robert Hanssen-America's Most Damaging Russian Spy

by Lis Wiehl

Overview

A legal analyst for NPR, NBC, and CNN delves into the facts surrounding what has been called the “worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history”: the case of Robert Hanssen—a Russian spy who was embedded in the FBI for two decades.

As a federal prosecutor and the daughter of an FBI agent, Wiehl has an inside perspective. She brings her experience and the ingrained lessons of her upraising to bear on her remarkable exploration of the case, interviewing numerous FBI and CIA agents both past and present as well as the individuals closest to Hanssen. She speaks with his brother-in-law, his oldest and best friend, and even his psychiatrist.

In all her conversations, Wiehl is trying to figure out how he did it—and at what cost. But she also pursues questions urgently relevant to our national security today. Could there be another spy in the system? Could the presence of a spy be an even greater threat now than ever before, with the greater prominence cyber security has taken in recent years? Wiehl explores the mechanisms and politics of our national security apparatus and how they make us vulnerable to precisely this kind of threat.

Wiehl grew up among the same people with whom Hanssen ingratiated himself, and she has spent her career trying to find the truth within fractious legal and political conflicts. A Spy in Plain Sight reflects on the deeply sown divisions and paranoias of our present day and provides an unparalleled view into the functioning of the FBI, and will stand alongside pillars of the genre like Killers of the Flower Moon, The Spy and the Traitor, and No Place to Hide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781639364572
Publisher:	Pegasus Books
Publication date:	05/09/2023
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	538,629
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Lis Wiehl is one of the nation’s most prominent trial lawyers and highly regarded commentators. She is a regular commentator for CNN and also appears often on CBS, NPR, and other news outlets. For fifteen years, she was a legal analyst and reporter on the Fox News Channel. Prior to that she was the co-host on the nationally syndicated show The Radio Factor. She was also a tenured law professor at the University of Washington School of Law, in Seattle. Prior to joining the Fox News Channel in New York City, Wiehl served as a legal analyst and reporter for NBC News and NPR’s All Things Considered. Before that, Wiehl served as a Federal Prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s office. Wiehl earned her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School and her Master of Arts in Literature from the University of Queensland. Wiehl is also the author of over nineteen books.

Table of Contents

Author's Note ix

Prologue: Strange Encounter xiii

Part I 1

Chapter 1 TOPHAT 3

Chapter 2 Spying 1.0 7

Chapter 3 "What Are You Hiding?" 12

Chapter 4 Grooming a Mole 17

Chapter 5 Spying 2.0 24

Chapter 6 "Holy Shit!" 34

Part II 45

Chapter 7 Who Is Robert Hanssen? 47

Chapter 8 All-American Boy 58

Chapter 9 Black Is White/Good Is Evil 71

Part III

Chapter 10 Trust Me! 89

Chapter 11 Puffs of Smoke 103

Chapter 12 "Do You Think Bob Could Be a KGB Agent?" 114

Chapter 13 Sumo Wrestling 124

Part IV 131

Chapter 14 The Vault People 133

Chapter 15 Odd Couple 140

Chapter 16 First Blood 149

Chapter 17 And the Winner Is … 160

Part V 167

Chapter 18 Whac-a-Mole 169

Chapter 19 He's Back! 184

Part VI 197

Chapter 20 PENNYWISE 199

Chapter 21 Baiting the Trap 216

Chapter 22 Takedown 232

Part VII 241

Chapter 23 Collateral Damage 243

Chapter 24 The Mind of a Spy 260

Chapter 25 Another Hanssen? 271

Sources and Methodology 283

Acronyms and Agencies 291

Endnotes 295

Index 309

Acknowledgments 317

Editorial Reviews

Lis Wiehl’s real-life page-turner is jam-packed with new, fascinating, thoroughly researched, and relevant-today details about the making of a monster, the evolution of his dangerous charisma, and how he was finally brought to justice."

Kate White

A riveting story of one of America’s most notorious spies. Like the former federal prosecutor she was, Lis Wiehl has uncovered damning new evidence and chilling first-hand accounts of how Robert Hanssen was able to elude the FBI for twenty years. More alarming still, Wiehl shows how Hanssen’s story illustrates the very real and present danger within the FBI today. A must-read.

Valerie Plame

A powerful dual narrative of the unfolding investigation and the life story of Ted Kaczynski. The action progresses with drama and nail-biting intensity, the conclusion foregone yet nonetheless compelling. A true-crime masterpiece."

Booklist (starred)

Lis Wiehl is a pro who does her homework and knows what she’s talking about. She’s a storyteller extraordinaire and this one, though non-fiction, reads like a thriller. She gives voice and life to a troubling aspect of our history, one that is definitely worth remembering.

Steve Berry

You think you know everything about an infamous criminal case until brilliant writers and researchers like Lis Wiehl and Caitlin Rother come along to expose new layers and new insights. This is a must-read for true crime fans—and those who think they know everything about the Manson case."

Gregg Olsen

★ 03/28/2022

Bestseller Wiehl (Hunting the Unabomber: The FBI, Ted Kaczynski, and the Capture of America’s Most Notorious Domestic Terrorist) more than justifies another book about Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent who had been a spy for the former Soviet Union for decades until his arrest in 2001. She uses new interviews, including with Hanssen’s brother-in-law, and extensive research to flesh out the story of Hanssen’s consequential betrayals. Those included high-level asset Dmitri Polyakov, a Soviet general who had provided the U.S. with essential intel since the 1960s and who was tortured and executed after Hanssen informed the Soviets of his activities. The collateral consequences of Hanssen’s treachery make this anything but a cold-blooded account. Among his unintended victims was CIA officer Brian Kelley, who was falsely suspected of being the Russian mole and who suffered psychological brutalization by his employers, who subjected him to harsh interrogations, and whose family members also were suspected of complicity and stigmatized while the criminal case against Kelley was still pending; the case was ultimately dismissed; the author’s access to Kelley’s emails makes that experience vivid. Wiehl closes with a valuable section exploring whether America’s national security apparatus is better prepared today to prevent such an event from happening again, concluding, disturbingly, that another Hanssen is possible. This is likely the definitive look at a spy case that continues to shock years later. Agent: Todd Schuster, Aevitas Creative. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Hunting Charles Manson the best true crime book you will ever read. Lock your doors, keep the night lights on, and read this book.

Linda Fairstein

Praise for Lis Wiehl:

From the Publisher

Wiehl relates Hanssen’s treachery in vivid, emotionally laden prose, sparing no judgment [regarding] Hanssen's outward religiosity, sexual escapades, and utter disdain for the oaths he had taken to protect the U.S. Fans of spy stories will revel in Wiehl’s recounting of deadly serious real-life espionage.

Booklist

★ 2022-01-25
Perhaps the best of the many books on Robert Hanssen (b. 1944), the agent who, for more than 20 years, sold American secrets to Russia.

The daughter of an FBI agent, Wiehl, a former federal prosecutor and legal analyst for a variety of networks, delivers a fine account that will make readers squirm but not put it down. Most Americans associate espionage with the CIA, but the FBI is responsible for intelligence within the U.S. and has a considerable presence abroad. Burned repeatedly, the CIA had tightened security by the end of the 20th century, but as the author shows, “the FBI—one of the world’s most honored and famous investigative bodies—has almost no capacity to investigate itself.” Hired in 1976, Hanssen was first posted to Indianapolis and then to New York City. FBI agents are not highly paid, and, of course, the cost of living in NYC is far higher than in Indiana. Soon after being assigned to Soviet counterintelligence in 1979, Hanssen, married with three children, walked into a local Soviet office and offered to sell his services. Not a field agent but a computer specialist, he took advantage of access to the FBI’s electronic record system as well as its far-too-trusting culture. Until his arrest in 2001, he handed over a steady stream of secrets that crippled U.S. intelligence and resulted in the deaths of many American assets behind the Iron Curtain. An exhaustive researcher, Wiehl seems to have interviewed everyone in Hanssen’s family and his professional life, and she contributes her own expertise to deliver a fascinating, detailed chronicle of her subject’s crimes and personality. The author does not take the easy route by assuming that the FBI was staffed by dimwits, and her unnerving final chapter concludes that, despite some reforms, other Hanssens are not only possible; they’re probably already at work.

A superb account of a long-running intelligence disaster.

Kirkus Reviews