Former CIA agent Aldrich Ames, who spied for Russia, dies in prison at 84

Former CIA agent Aldrich Ames, who pleaded guilty to spying for Russia in 1994, died Monday at the age of 84 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Cumberland, Maryland, according to a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson.

No cause of death has been reported, but it comes as Ames was serving a life sentence without the chance of parole, per CBS News. 

Ames, a 31-year veteran of the CIA, spent nearly a decade spying for Russia during the 1980s and 1990s. He is believed to have compromised more than 100 U.S. intelligence operations and said he gave the Soviet Union the names of virtually all Russian agents of the CIA he knew, resulting in the deaths of at least nine agents.

The former spy told the New York Times shortly after his arrest in 1994 that greed was his biggest motivator and traded the identities of Russian spies for large sums of money. 

"I know what's damaging and I know what's not damaging, and I know what the Soviet Union is really all about, and I know what's best for foreign policy and national security," he said. "And I'm going to act on that."

Ames served in the CIA from 1962 until his arrest and rose to become chief of the counterintelligence branch of the CIA's Soviet division in September 1983. His high-ranking position came despite red flags throughout his career, including lie detector tests that showed deceptive answers, sudden unexplained wealth, poor job performance and alcohol abuse.

Ames' second wife, Rosario Ames, also pleaded guilty to espionage charges in 1994 and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.