SS, he participated in the creation of a propaganda leaflet to be distributed by the Wehrmacht and among Allied prisoners of war. With Germany's defeat imminent, Monti fled Berlin to Milan, Italy, by railroad and military transport. Upon arrival in Milan, Monti approached the first U.S. Army unit he encountered, while still wearing his SS uniform, from which by this point, he had removed all insignia and identifying marks. He was interrogated by U.S. Army officers, initially under the assumption he was a German prisoner of war. He did not reveal his personal association with the SS or that he had stolen the F-5E aircraft to defect to the Nazis, and, upon further questioning, only that he had stolen the aircraft as a result that "he was bored" and so that he could "personally fight the Germans himself." Post-war trials During his post-war trials, Monti again claimed that he had stolen the plane to fight the Germans, that he had been shot down, and that he had joined with partisans, who gave him the SS uniform. His claims were largely believed, resulting in him being court-martialed solely for theft of the aircraft and desertion. On August, 6, 1945, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, on February 11, 1946, Monti's sentence was suspended by Harry S. Truman, after Walter C. Ploeser pleaded for leniency on behalf of Monti's parents. As a condition of his commutation, Monti was required to reenlist in the Army Air Forces (later that year the independent Air Force) as a private, which he did on February 11, 1947. Monti had reached the rank of sergeant by the time he was honorably discharged on January 26, 1948. Only minutes later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested him at Mitchel Field, New York, and charged him with treason for the propaganda activities performed as "Martin Wiethaupt", whom the FBI had since identified as Monti. On October 14, 1948, a federal grand jury in Brooklyn indicted him for 21 acts of treason committed between October 13, 1944, and May 8, 1945, the day hostilities in Europe ended. On January 17, 1949, Monti pleaded guilty, surprising the prosecutors and the court, which had prepared for a lengthy trial. Monti's lawyers had advised him to plead guilty, saying there was no hope of an acquittal and that his status as a military officer would constitute a major aggravating factor.