SEATTLE — A former U.S. Army sergeant who served at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) was sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison and three years of supervised release for federal crimes related to delivering national security information to China, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, pleaded guilty in June 2025 to attempting to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour cited the seriousness of Schmidt’s conduct and his mental health at the time as reasons for the sentence.
“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 Charles Neil Floyd said. “These cases remain a priority for our office to keep our country safe.”
W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office said Schmidt violated the oath he swore.
“As a soldier, Mr. Schmidt swore an oath to protect the United States and its citizens who, in turn, entrusted him with their security and the secrets necessary to defend it,” Herrington said. “Instead of upholding that trust, he betrayed it by handing over classified information to China, as his admissions make clear. The FBI and our partners will remain vigilant in our mission to safeguard our nation, making every effort to uncover those who endanger it and hold them accountable.”
Schmidt lived in Hong Kong after China granted him a work visa. In October 2023, he returned to the United States and was arrested at San Francisco International Airport.
According to a release, Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said Schmidt “created documents based on classified and national defense information. He used his training to provide sensitive information to the Chinese security service. He knew what he was doing was wrong – he was doing web searches for such things as ‘Can you be extradited for treason.’”
트위터 공유: 전 육군 하사 국가 기밀 유출 4년형 선고