State Department Offers $20 Million for Iran Nuclear Program Intelligence

The reward signals a shift toward financial incentives as a primary tool for gathering nuclear proliferation intelligence, a method the U.S. Government has used in other national security contexts...

The U.S. State Department is offering up to $20 million for information about Iran's nuclear program, according to a Fox News report citing the Department's Rewards for Justice program. The reward is accessible through Signal and Tor tip lines, channels designed to protect the anonymity of sources.

The Rewards for Justice program is administered by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service. It was established under the 1984 Act to Combat International Terrorism (22 U.S.C. 2708) and has historically been used to solicit intelligence on terrorism, narcotics trafficking, and threats to U.S. National security. The program has paid out more than $250 million in rewards since its inception, according to the State Department's official Rewards for Justice website.

The $20 million figure places this offer among the higher-value rewards the program has posted. For comparison, the program has previously offered $10 million for information on specific foreign election interference operations and $25 million for information on Osama bin Laden prior to 2011. The specific ceiling amount for this Iran-related offer was reported by Fox News on November 7, 2026, citing the program's public announcement.

The announcement comes as U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations remain unresolved. Iran has continued uranium enrichment activities, with the International Atomic Energy Agency reporting in 2025 that Iran had accumulated stockpiles of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity, below weapons-grade levels of approximately 90 percent but above the 3.67 percent limit set under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, from which the United States withdrew in 2018 under the first Trump administration.

The use of Signal and Tor as submission channels reflects an operational consideration: both platforms use end-to-end encryption and, in Tor's case, anonymizing routing technology. The State Department has used these channels in prior Rewards for Justice postings related to ransomware and cybercrime, according to previous program announcements archived on the Rewards for Justice website.

The $20 million reward is directed at information specifically related to Iran's nuclear program. The announcement does not define the precise criteria for a qualifying tip or specify whether partial payments would be made for information that leads to partial outcomes. The full eligibility criteria, which are typically detailed in the program's case-specific disclosures, have not been reproduced in available public reporting as of this writing.

Congress has oversight authority over the Rewards for Justice program through the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. No committee statements responding to this specific announcement were available in the congressional record as of November 7, 2026.

The announcement arrives amid broader U.S. Policy deliberations over Iran. As previously reported by The Congressional Times, the DOJ National Security Division Chief resigned amid an adversary probe, a development that touches on the broader national security apparatus responsible for tracking foreign state threats, including those related to nuclear proliferation.

It is not known from available public records whether this reward offer is coordinated with allied governments, whether a parallel classified program supplements it, or whether any tips have already been received. The State Department's Rewards for Justice public disclosure page would be the authoritative source for updated eligibility details and any subsequent award announcements.

What remains unknown is whether the $20 million ceiling reflects a new upper limit for nuclear-related intelligence or is consistent with prior unpublicized internal program guidelines. A formal Freedom of Information Act request to the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service would be the appropriate mechanism to obtain internal program criteria not currently available in the public record.