SEATTLE
A former U.S. Army sergeant pleaded guilty Wednesday to attempting to deliver and unlawfully retain national defense information, the Justice Department announced Friday.
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, formerly stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, faces up to 10 years in prison. He will be sentenced on September 9, 2025, by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour.
Schmidt served from 2015 to 2020 with the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion, where he had access to classified materials, including TOP SECRET files. After leaving the military, he contacted the Chinese consulate in Turkey and later emailed Chinese security services, offering to share sensitive U.S. defense information.
In March 2020, Schmidt traveled to Hong Kong and continued efforts to provide intelligence to China. He created documents outlining “high-level secrets” and offered a secure device capable of accessing U.S. military networks.
He remained in Hong Kong until October 2023, when he returned to the U.S. and was arrested upon landing in San Francisco.
(Fox 13 Seattle News Report 2024)
The case was investigated by the FBI and the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg is prosecuting the case, with support from the DOJ’s National Security Division.