Authored by Jack Phillips via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),
The FBI on Thursday said it is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the capture and prosecution of a former U.S. Air Force counterintelligence specialist who defected to Iran in 2013 and was later charged with revealing classified information to the Iranian regime.
The bureau said in a statement that Monica Witt served in the military from 1997 to 2008, then worked as a government contractor until 2010. She later defected to Iran in 2013.
In 2019, she was indicted by a grand jury in Washington on espionage charges, including transmitting national defense information to the Iranian regime, the FBI said.
After she defected, according to the indictment, she later provided information to Iran and put “sensitive and classified U.S. national defense information and programs” at risk, according to the statement.
The information she provided to the Iranian regime endangered American personnel and their families stationed abroad, the FBI said.
Witt is also accused of performing “research on behalf of the Iranian regime to allow them to target her former colleagues in the U.S. government,” the bureau added.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has launched attacks on U.S. assets in the region and recently attacked commercial shipping vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, has benefited from her defection to Iran, it added.
“Monica Witt allegedly betrayed her oath to the Constitution more than a decade ago by defecting to Iran and providing the Iranian regime National Defense Information and likely continues to support their nefarious activities,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said in a May 14 statement.
Even though she defected years ago, the special agent added that 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.”
“The FBI wants to hear from you so you can help us apprehend Witt and bring her to justice,” Wierzbicki said.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) has said that she defected after being invited to two all-expense-paid conferences in the country that the DOJ says promoted anti-Western propaganda and condemned American moral standards. Before that, Witt had been warned by the FBI about her activities, but she told agents that she would not provide sensitive information about her work if she returned to Iran, prosecutors said.
It wasn’t immediately known why the FBI was bringing attention to Witt’s case on May 14.
The United States and Iran have been at war since Feb. 28. Tehran recently submitted proposals to Washington to end the conflict, which were rejected by the United States. This week, Iran allegedly attacked several ships in the region. A UK maritime agency said a ship was seized near the Strait of Hormuz and moved to Iran on May 14.
U.S. President Donald Trump on May 14 said that his patience with Tehran is running out and that Chinese leader Xi Jinping had agreed during talks in Beijing that Iran must move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which about a fifth of the world’s oil passes on a normal day.
Anyone with information about Witt or her whereabouts is urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Tips can also be submitted to local FBI offices, the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate, or sent via tips.fbi.gov, according to the law enforcement bureau.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.