Ex-soldier sentenced to 4 years in prison for trying to give sensitive US military info to China

A former Army sergeant was sentenced to four years in prison for trying to give sensitive U.S. military information to China.

Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, on Tuesday received his sentence of four years in prison and three years of supervised release after pleading guilty in June to attempting to deliver national defense information and retaining national defense information, according to the Justice Department.

Schmidt's last duty post was Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington, which he left in January 2020 after a mental health episode. He had been an active-duty soldier since January 2015 and had access to sensitive defense information.

After leaving the Army, Schmidt reached out to the Chinese Consulate in Turkey and the Chinese security services, offering information. In March 2020, Schmidt traveled to Hong Kong and continued to provide the classified information, including creating several documents that described various “high level secrets.”

He also had a device that permits access to secure military computer networks and offered it to Chinese authorities to assist them in trying to gain access to those networks.

Schmidt received a work visa in China, living there until he flew to San Francisco in October 2023, where he was arrested at the airport.

“As a retired Army officer, I find it unconscionable for a former soldier to put his colleagues and country at risk by peddling secret information and intelligence access to a hostile foreign power,” U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said in a statement. “These cases remain a priority for our office to keep our country safe.”