In 2016, Russian officials managed to breach the FBI communications system in a way that seriously undermined the bureau’s ability to track Russian spies in the US and prompted the FBI and the CIA to break off communications with certain assets out of fear they could otherwise be compromised by Moscow, a recent Yahoo News report states.
According to former officials, the breach prompted US officials to seriously consider the presence of a Russian mole within the US intelligence community. The incident was also an important factor behind the US government’s decision in late 2016 to expel close two three dozen Russian diplomats from the country and to seize two Kremlin estates in the rural East Coast, because the compounds had been used by the Russians to carry out the disruptive operation.
