American counterintelligence investigators discovered that a suspected Russian spy had been working undetected at the American embassy in Moscow for more than ten years, reports the British newspaper The Guardian.
The spy, a Russian, was employed by one of the US secret services and is believed to have had access to the Internet and email systems through which she was able to obtain classified materials, including the schedules of the US president and vice president.
According to the Guardian, she worked for the Secret Service for years before becoming suspicious in 2016 during a routine security check conducted by two investigators from the US Regional Security Office (RSO).
They found that she had regular and unsanctioned meetings with members of Russia's main intelligence agency, the FSB.
The Guardian newspaper writes that, according to its knowledge, the RSO signaled the alarm in January 2017, but that the Secret Service did not launch its own investigation. Instead they decided to quietly fire her a few months later, possibly to prevent the embarrassment that this knowledge might cause.
One intelligence source told the Guardian that the woman was fired last summer when the State Department revoked her clearance to access classified information. This happened just before the round of expulsions of US personnel by the Kremlin that followed the US imposition of new sanctions on Russia.
The order to remove 750 US employees from the 1.200-person diplomatic mission in Russia appears to have served as cover for her dismissal, according to the Guardian.
An unnamed source told the Guardian that the Secret Service was trying to cover up her spying by firing her.
"The damage has already been done but Secret Service senior management has not conducted any internal investigation to assess the damage or see if she recruited any other officers to give her information," the source said.
When asked by the Guardian whether the woman was investigated and fired, the US Secret Service tried to downplay her role, but did not deny that she had been identified as a potential mole.
The US Secret Service has stated that none of the foreigners employed at the embassy are at any time in a position to have access to information related to national security.
The Secret Service is a US federal agency that is part of the Department of Homeland Security and has more than 150 offices around the world.
The discovery of a possible Russian FSB mole among their employees at the US Embassy in Moscow would greatly damage their reputation and could have serious consequences for the safety of other Secret Service personnel and those the service is supposed to protect.
The Guardian states that he got the name of the suspected spy and information about what she did in the agency, and that he tried to contact her, but she did not answer the calls.
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