The FBI is offering $200,000 for tips to catch Monica Witt, a former Air Force counterintelligence agent accused of defecting to Iran and handing national defense secrets to the regime.
Federal agents want the public’s help locating the 47-year-old former U.S. service member who remains at large more than six years after a grand jury charged her with espionage. Wire reporting details the reward announced by the FBI Washington Field Office for information that leads to her arrest and prosecution.
A federal grand jury in the District of Columbia indicted Witt in February 2019 on charges that include transmitting national defense information to the Iranian government. Officials say she defected in 2013 and has lived in Iran since.
That timeline matters. Witt spent years inside the U.S. military and intelligence world before the alleged break. From 1997 to 2008 she served as an active-duty Air Force intelligence specialist and special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. She later worked as a U.S. government contractor until 2010.
Just The News reported she held access to secret and top secret material tied to foreign intelligence and counterintelligence work, including the true names of undercover personnel.
Indictment paints a decade of alleged betrayal
Prosecutors allege Witt intentionally supplied information that put U.S. personnel and their families stationed abroad at risk. They further claim she researched targets for the Iranian regime so it could go after her former colleagues in the U.S. government.
The FBI says her move to Iran has benefited the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s powerful arm that handles intelligence collection, unconventional warfare, and support for terrorist groups that target American citizens and interests. Readers tracking recent flashpoints will recall how Iran struck a U.S. air base in the region after pointed warnings from Washington.
Witt speaks Farsi and is believed to reside in Iran. Authorities say she may use aliases including Fatemah Zahra or Narges Witt. She has not been taken into custody.
Daniel Wierzbicki, special agent in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office’s Counterintelligence and Cyber Division, did not speak evasively about the case.
Wierzbicki stated:
"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,"
Breitbart carried the same warning from the bureau, underscoring that the hunt continues even as Iran’s internal situation draws global attention.
Wierzbicki added that the FBI has not forgotten and believes someone knows where she is “during this critical moment in Iran’s history.” He urged the public to come forward so agents can “apprehend Witt and bring her to justice.”
Years inside sensitive programs before the alleged defection
Witt’s résumé reads like a pipeline into the heart of American counterintelligence. Air Force service as an intelligence specialist and OSI special agent gave her front-row exposure to classified missions. Contractor work kept her inside government circles until 2010. Three years later, according to the indictment, she crossed over.
The Washington Examiner noted her path from Air Force officer to the subject of a major espionage case. That arc is why the reward is now on the table.
National security cases like this sit alongside other bureau efforts to disrupt plots before they reach American soil, including the recent FBI sting on an ISIS-inspired Capitol plot.
Tips can go to 1-800-CALL-FBI, any local FBI office, the nearest American embassy or consulate, or tips.fbi.gov. The bureau says it is still actively working to find her.
Iran’s intelligence machine and the cost of lost secrets
When a trained counterintelligence officer allegedly switches sides, the damage is not abstract. True names of undercover officers, program details, and targeting data can travel far inside a hostile service. The IRGC is built for exactly that kind of work.
The New York Post reported the same core facts: the 2019 indictment, the 2013 defection claim, the risk to personnel overseas, and the $200,000 offer for her capture.
American forces have answered Iranian threats in other theaters, including the strike that sank Iran’s prized drone carrier not long after it entered service. Catching an accused spy who allegedly fed that same system is unfinished business of a different kind.
The FBI’s counterintelligence mission has faced its own internal turbulence, as seen when counterterrorism chiefs were demoted amid fights over stalled threat probes. Cases like Witt’s still demand focus on the people who once held clearances and then, prosecutors say, walked them to a foreign capital.
No new arrest has been announced. Witt remains free. The reward stands. The indictment from 2019 is still the charging document on the books.
Americans who wear the uniform or carry a clearance swear an oath for a reason. When that oath is allegedly broken for a regime that arms terrorists and hunts U.S. personnel, the least the country can do is keep hunting the person responsible until the cuffs go on.
