The FBI is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist accused of spying for Iran, who defected to the country nearly a decade ago.
Monica Witt was indicted in February 2019 by a Washington, D.C., federal grand jury on espionage charges, stemming from allegations that she transmitted classified national defense information to the Iranian government.
Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a Thursday statement that Witt “allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution” by “defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities.”
“The FBI has not forgotten and believes that during this critical moment in Iran’s history, there is someone who knows something about her whereabouts,” Wierzbicki added.
Witt served as an intelligence specialist and special agent for the Air Force between 1997 and 2008, where she was trained in Farsi and deployed overseas, including to the Middle East, on classified counterintelligence missions, according to The Associated Press.
She later worked as a U.S. government contractor until 2010, positions the FBI said provided her access to secret and top-secret foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information, including the true names of undercover U.S. personnel.
The AP reported that Witt, a Texas native, defected to Iran in 2013 after attending conferences inside the country that the Justice Department described as promoting anti-Western and anti-American propaganda. She remains at large.
The initial indictment accused Witt of providing information to the government of Iran, “placing at risk sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and program,” according to the FBI.
“Witt allegedly intentionally provided information endangering U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad,” the field office noted in a news release. “She also allegedly conducted research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government.”
The FBI further alleged that Witt’s defection has “benefited” the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the armed forces wing of the Iranian regime that was designated by the U.S. as a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.
The FBI reward for Witt’s capture comes as the conflict between the U.S. and Iran is set to stretch into its 12th week on Saturday, as negotiations on a permanent peace deal appear deadlocked over Tehran’s nuclear stockpile.