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Russian spy got ‘close enough’ to Obama leadership

Sarah Hofmann Contributor
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FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi told the BBC that in 2010, a Russian spy was getting too close for comfort with a sitting member of President Barack Obama’s cabinet. In an interview aired Monday night, Figliuzzi said that the spy was “closer and closer to higher and higher ranking leadership,” using a “honey trap,” until the FBI felt intervention was needed and a group of ten spies were arrested and deported.

Among the deportees was the red-haired Anna Chapman, portrayed in many media outlets as a seductive femme fatale. Although Figliuzzi never named the cabinet member or spy, the timing of Chapman’s deportation led to speculation that she had seduced her way into Obama’s inner circle. (RELATED: Anna Chapman nude in Playboy, nabs political post)

Since the interview aired, the FBI has said that Chapman was not the spy in question. Instead, Department of Justice officials say seduction was never a factor and that the spy in question was Cynthia Murphy, one of the ten arrested in the same ring. Murphy was a friend of one of Hilary Clinton’s fundraisers, Alan Patricof. After Murphy’s arrest, Patricof said he and Murphy had never discussed the government.

Since her deportation, Chapman has become a fashion model, a television host and a celebrity representative for Putin’s political party.

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Sarah Hofmann