A former US Army sergeant has been sentenced by a federal judge to four years in prison after being charged with Trying to cross the sensitive army information to china
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, pleaded guilty to two felonies for offering classified information to the Chinese government with a device that could gain access to secure military computer networks. according to Justice DepartmentIn his role he had access to sensitive defense information.
Schmidt was on active duty from 2015 to 2020 and served with the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington.
He left the army in January 2020 and offered information to the Chinese Consulate in Türkiye and Chinese security services. Schmidt traveled to Hong Kong in March that year and continued to provide classified information, including creating several documents that described various “high level secrets”.
The former soldier got a work visa in China and lived there for three years until moving to San Francisco, where he was arrested in October 2023.
“As a retired Army officer, I think it is inappropriate for a former soldier to endanger his colleagues and the country by delivering classified information and intelligence to a hostile foreign power,” U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a statement. DOJ news release,
“These matters remain a priority for our office to keep our nation safe,” he said.
