A disbarred government attorney convicted of espionage-related charges in the late 1990s asked a bar ethics board on Tuesday to reinstate her license to practice law in Washington, D.C.

Theresa Squillacote, a former Defense Department lawyer, lost her law license after she was found guilty in 1998 of attempted espionage and several related charges. Prosecutors at the time said the former East Germany foreign intelligence recruited Squillacote and her then-husband Kurt Stand to spy on the U.S. She was caught during an FBI sting operation in which she passed classified documents to an undercover agent posing as a foreign agent for the government of South Africa, according to court papers.