A former US Army sergeant was arrested on Friday for seeking to provide classified information to China, the Justice Department said.
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, who served in an army intelligence unit from 2015 until 2020, is charged with retaining national defense information and attempting to deliver it to China.
The Justice Department said Schmidt, after leaving the military, offered national defense information to the Chinese consulate in Turkey and the Chinese security services.
In March 2020, Schmidt, who had access to secret and top secret information while serving in the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, went to Hong Kong, where he “continued his efforts to provide Chinese intelligence with classified information.”
“He allegedly retained a device that allows for access to secure military computer networks and offered the device to Chinese authorities to assist them in efforts to gain access to such networks,” the department said.
