NORFOLK, Va., Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Prosecutors in a Norfolk, Va., trial of a Navy veteran attempted to debunk claims the defendant sought to help the U.S. government catch Russian agents.
Robert Hoffman II, 40, who retired from the U.S. Navy in 2011, is charged with attempted espionage in passing classified documents to undercover FBI agents posing as Russian intelligence officers.
After Hoffman walked into the FBI's Norfolk field office last October and asked for help catching Russian spies who had attempted to recruit him, he sent his handlers an email with the subject line "The power is out," a coded message indicating a problem, court documents said.
Prosecutors highlighted the message Monday in U.S. District Court as an indication Hoffman was not attempting to see the alleged Russian spies captured.
The case stems from a "false flag" operation launched by the FBI after it learned Hoffman, a Navy cryptologic technician, spent three weeks in Eastern Europe in 2011. The FBI sent him a letter, purporting to be from Moscow, seeking "technical expertise," The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported.
Witnesses in the trial said Hoffman began communicating with an FBI agent he thought was a Russian spy, and dropped off information three times at a predetermined spot in a local state park.
After the third drop, which included information about how to track U.S. warships, Hoffman sought the help of the FBI to catch his contacts, the newspaper said.
