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>> reporter: we don't know. but he will be coming to the u.s. he's certainly not going to stay in cuba. the director of national intelligence is saying this person provided critical assistance to the u.s. and then you have that list of all the spies working for cuba that he, this intel asset, helped identify during the course of his work for u.s. intelligence. >> jim sciutto, stand by. elise labott, our global affairs correspondent, you have more information on this american spy 20 years in a cuban prison for helping the united states. >> well, this is the intelligence agency, as jim said, tha...

With secretary of state conqujo kerry and being greeted by loved ones and even held his own news conference and yet very little is known about the details surrounding the other prisoner released from cuba. a u.s. intelligence agent who up until now very few people even knew existed. i am joined by cnn national correspondent jim sciutto. what do we been this agent? >> this is a big diplomatic move and it's an old-school cold war spy swap, and known in the u.s. as the wasp network. in exchange, cuba releasing, we are told, a cuban man who provided critical assistance to the u.s. a statement from...

Shared, it led to the discovery and conviction of a couple of these americans who were spying for the cubans. we also know that he provided valuable intelligence to help us uncover the wast network that was a cuban-run intelligence network in south florida. and the kind of spy swap that was executed today, essentially trading some members of that wasp network in exchange for this highly valued intelligence asset in cuba, is keconsistent with the kind of spy swaps that have been executed by many presidents. not just over decades, but over centuries. we certainly are pleased that we're able to b...

Were, in fact, spies? >> yes. they were not technically dealing with espionage but if you refer to a secret intelligence agent, yes, they have always admitted that. at the start of the trial they admitted that. that's one of the things that made it so difficult to get a fair trial in cuba -- i'm sorry, in miami, which was that the very beginning of the case, all of the defendants admitted they were agentings here working in cuba. what they were disputing at trial and what we continue to litigate up until today was whether they did commit the particular violations they were accused of, which in...

Take certain and was taking certain steps that were both economically and otherwise harming cuba. and they were tasked with a non -- truly a non-espionage mission here which was to look into whether or not certain exiled groups were undertaking what could be called terrorist or other types of actions that would be harmful to cuba. >> and one of the groups they were spying on was called brothers to rescue which was mounting flights in the cuba straits to look for potential migrants. one of their planes was the one that was shot down. now that one of the members who was involved in that shootdow...