Dispatches From Exile: Weekly Mind Dump 6/4-6/10, 2023
Whether it's treason, leaking or theft of official secrets: the punishment must fit the crime, ex-presidents and congresspeople being no exception.
This week has been an exceptionally event-filled one on the national security front. As the January 6 foot soldier putschists have found out, accountability has way of wrecking your day — or decade(s).
I’ll get to the violator-in-chief presently. But first, let’s turn to one who was arguably the most notorious traitor in American history (so far). Robert Hanssen died this week. Few have reason to mourn his passing at ADX Florence, a federal supermax prison near Florence, Colorado, where he was held in solitary confinement 23 hours a day for the past 21 years, serving 15 consecutive life terms.
“He wasn’t just the worst spy in U.S. history. He was our first cyberspy,” according to Eric O’Neill, the former FBI special agent who played a key role in nabbing Hanssen. And no less than the Department of Justice has declared his treachery as “possibly the worst intelligence disaster in U.S. history.” Hanssen, an FBI special agent specializing in counterintelligence, spied for Moscow over 22 years during which he essentially gave away the crown jewels of America’s official secrets. At least three Russians spying for the CIA were executed by their government after Hanssen divulged their identities.
His betrayal hit close to home for me. I had worked on a classified program so sensitive that I was required to travel under light cover, my whereabouts disclosable to no one outside of the unit in which I worked. I would tell my friends and loved ones that I was at “offsite training,” blah, blah. Hanssen revealed the program to the Russians. Huge amounts of dollars and years of effort went to waste. Our national security was seriously compromised.
Apart from being a traitor, Hanssen was also a man of contradictions, a true weirdo. An ultra-conservative Catholic, he made secret videos of him and his wife having sex, which he then shared with a friend. Father of seven, Hanssen financially supported a stripper with his ill-gotten gains from the Russians. Very conservative politically, he nonetheless sold his country out. He was called “The Undertaker” behind his back by his FBI colleagues due to his morbid demeanor. Several books and movies have been written and made about him.
Hanssen wasn’t the only traitor whose shadow darkened my government career. Just after reporting for duty at the State Department’s European affairs bureau, I was handed the investigative file on Felix Bloch, a senior bureau official alleged to be another spy of Moscow’s. The case became headline news. The file showed that the government clearly had the goods on Bloch, including photographs of him meeting with his Soviet handler overseas. In the end, the government chose not to prosecute him since doing so would require the government to produce highly classified information as evidence in court. As with Hanssen, Bloch also engaged in sexual peccadilloes, which rendered him compromisable. He frequented a prostitute in Vienna, paying her $10,000 yearly for sadomasochistic sex. Unwilling to prosecute Bloch, State fired him, depriving him of a pension in the process. His subordinates understandably requested that the employee evaluations Bloch wrote on them be re-done under another senior officer’s signature — a request that was readily granted. The former diplomat now lives in obscurity, having taken jobs as a supermarket clerk and bus driver. He has also been arrested several times for shoplifting.
Which gets me to Donald Trump.
Lady Justice seems finally to be catching up with the grifter-in-chief. Right on the heels of having been found civilly liable for sexual assault, the DOJ this week has filed 37 criminal charges, 31 of them violations of the Espionage Act, against him in connection with his alleged willful retention of and mishandling of classified documents. I won’t delve into this fast developing story. You can follow the latest through your favored news outlets.
But here’s my take on Trump. If he’s not in the same category of infamy as Hanssen and Bloch (though I by no means rule it out), he certainly falls within the spectrum of betrayal, if not as a full-blown Russian asset, then as what is called a “useful idiot.” I’ve laid out my arguments and the available evidence in a number of published pieces since even before Trump entered the White House:
“Tinker. Tailor. Mogul. Spy?” 1/13/17
Whether therefore Trump is a witting or unwitting asset of the Russian Federation, the bottom line is this: by turning away intelligence briefings, by inexplicably attacking his country’s intelligence agencies and by his open bromance with Putin, the President-elect is putting the nation’s national security at grave risk.
“The Case for Treason” 2/17/18
To some intelligence experts, the question of whether, or not, Trump is an unwitting asset of Russian intelligence is settled. Former CIA acting Director Mike Morell wrote, “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.” Former DNI chief, James Clapper, said on CNN, “This past weekend is a great demonstration to me of what a great case officer Vladimir Putin is. He knows how to handle an asset, and that’s what he’s doing with the president.”
“Trump is a Russian Asset & Here’s Why” 3/29/19
For me, Trump is no Rorschach. I see clearly a man in thrall to Vladimir Putin. I base this on nearly 25 years of having worked in national security.
“A Call on President Trump to Pardon All Traitors, Including Himself” 11/28/20
A former Republican White House official, Stefan Halper, warned national security officials in 2014 that Michael Flynn may have been compromised by the Russians. Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates made a similar warning to the White House in 2017, urging the Trump team not to hire Flynn. Finally, President Obama urged incoming President Trump not to hire the retired general on the same grounds.
Undeterred, Russophile Trump named Flynn as his National Security Advisor. Twenty-two days later, Flynn’s less-than-illustrious White House career came to an abrupt end after he was caught lying to the FBI about promises he made to the Russian ambassador that Trump would go easy on Moscow. Flynn subsequently pled guilty twice to felony charges.
“Will Trump Take His Treason to His Grave?” 12/27/20
I believe Trump was suborned by Russian intelligence pre-Putin — likely some time during his many visits to Moscow in the 1980s and 1990s. And forget the salacious stuff that came out in the very flawed “Steele Dossier.” As the saying goes, “Follow the money.” Russian intel used Russian oligarchs to channel lots of cash, largely via Deutsche Bank, to save Trump’s bankrupt ass.
More recently, Trump has refused either to condemn Putin on his invasion of Ukraine or to express support for that nation’s resistance to Russian aggression.
As government investigators, writers and reporters continue to dig into the Trump swamp, the full truth will eventually show itself. Had the American people elected Benedict Arnold as president, it would look quaint today compared to the high crimes of Donald Trump that I believe will be revealed over time. And, who knows? In keeping with Hanssen’s and Bloch’s perversions, Trump’s “pee tapes” may turn out to be fact.
And then there are his coup d'état accomplices in Congress.
Rolling Stone was the first to report on the complicity of multiple members of Congress in planning both Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss and the Jan. 6 insurrection. Sources told the publication’s reporters that these include representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (D-GA), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), Mo Brooks (R-AK), Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Louie Gohmert (R-TX). It’s likely there are others, including Scott Perry (R-PA) as well as those who are not congresspeople, such as Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas, on whom there is very incriminating evidence of involvement in the insurrection.
These, and complicit staffers, also need to be held accountable. What are the chances? If history is any guide, not good.
I just finished reading an eye-opening book, Hitler's American Friends: The Third Reich's Supporters in the United States, by Bradley W. Hart. It tells the undertold story of pro-fascist Americans in the years leading up to World War II who wittingly served Hitler’s interests. Groups included not only the America First movement, the German American Bund and the Silver Legion, but also members of academia, conservative media, big business and Congress.
Some collaborated with the German government to plot to overthrow the U.S. government and install a fascist regime. They included 24 members of the House and Senate who, wittingly collaborating with a German agent, had assisted in disseminating the Third Reich’s propaganda at taxpayers’ expense and enabled the agent to obtain sensitive information which he sent to Berlin. Foremost among these were senators Ernest Lundeen (R-MN), Gerald P. Nye (R-ND) and Burton Wheeler (R-MT) and representative Hamilton Fish (R-NY).
In 1942, the DOJ, acting on evidence collected by the FBI, charged 23 individuals with sedition. Prosecutors, however, bungled the case, which fell apart upon the death of the inept presiding judge. Furthermore, the powerful senators who collaborated with the German agent, put pressure on the DOJ to close the case, as did President Harry Truman, who didn’t want a messy sedition scandal involving members of Congress on top of such monumental burdens as bringing World War II to a close, confronting a new Cold War, putting the economy back on a peacetime track, etc.
While the seditious politicians managed to skate justice, they met accountability politically, virtually all having lost re-election in the wake of exposés of their treasonous actions.
While Donald Trump’s legal reckoning drains all the oxygen from the political atmosphere, don’t lose sight of the henchmen who actively connived with him to overthrow democracy. It would indeed be a shame if they too skated justice as their forebears in treason had succeeded in doing eight decades previously.
The opinions and characterizations in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent official positions of the U.S. government.
You flatter me! Actually, having appeared on a number of news networks, I try to avoid being noticed, preferring to remain in the background.
Great article. As a writer and reader of spy fiction, I really appreciate everything you wrote here. Well done.