WASHINGTON — The FBI announced Thursday it is offering a $200,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension and prosecution of a former counterintelligence agent who was indicted who was charged in 2019 with spying for Iran.
In an announcement Thursday, the FBI said it is still trying to locate Monica Witt, who it believes defected to Iran in 2013.
“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,” Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, said a statement, likely referring to the US’ ongoing tensions with Iran.
Witt was a former counterintelligence officer for the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. From 2003 and 2008, Witt’s work involved counterintelligence assignments that took her to the Middle East.
The 47-year-old’s military service and contracting employment provided her access to secret and top secret information relating to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence, including the true names of US Intelligence Community undercover personnel.
In 2019, then-Assistant Attorney General John Demers alleged that Witt was targeted and recruited by Iran, and after she defected, she allegedly revealed to Iran the existence of a “highly classified intelligence collection program” and the identity of a US intelligence officer, “thereby risking the life of this individual.”
Prosecutors alleged in the indictment that from around January 2012 to around May 2015, in Iran and elsewhere outside the US, Witt conspired with Iranians to provide “documents and information relating to the national defense of the United States, with the intent and reason to believe that the same would be used to the injury of the United States and to the advantage of Iran.”
After her defection, Iranian government officials provided Witt with “goods and services, including housing and computer equipment,” to facilitate her work for them, according to the indictment. It’s unclear whether she has a lawyer in the US to represent her.
The indictment also charged four Iranians with conspiracy, attempts to commit computer intrusion and aggravated identity theft.
Source: Saudi Gazette