...United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government. They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president...
The intelligence officials obviously weren’t FBI. They would have paid cash on the spot and immediately leaked to the press.
There are two groups that would be on foreign soil and have access to that much money....the CIA or the State Department.
I would be curious over how the final report was written on this episode and who signed off the report. To me, it would be a career-ending moment to admit that you got into a stupid episode like this...paid $100,000...and got nothing.
The surprising thing is that the Americans threaten the Russian to never come back to Germany. The American probably watched too many Kirk Douglas movies. I’ll bet the Russian comes through Berlin monthly.