A former US Military Sergeant, Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, who was final stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) in Washington, pleaded responsible on Wednesday in a Seattle federal courtroom to trying to share labeled navy data with the Chinese language authorities.Schmidt admitted to 2 felony expenses — trying to ship nationwide protection data and unlawfully retaining such data. He faces as much as 10 years in jail and a $250,000 superb for every cost. Sentencing is ready for September 9, 2025, earlier than US District Choose John C. Coughenour.In accordance with courtroom paperwork, Schmidt “was an active-duty soldier from January 2015 to January 2020. His main project was at JBLM within the 109th Army Intelligence Battalion. In his function, Schmidt had entry to SECRET and TOP SECRET data. After his separation from the navy, Schmidt reached out to the Chinese language Consulate in Turkey and later, the Chinese language safety companies through electronic mail providing nationwide protection data.“In March 2020, Schmidt traveled to Hong Kong and continued his efforts to share labeled data, drafting detailed paperwork outlining US navy secrets and techniques and retaining a tool used to entry safe Military networks — which he supplied to Chinese language officers.In accordance with the US Division of Justice, he wrote a number of lengthy paperwork detailing “high-level secrets and techniques” and supplied to the Chinese language authorities. He additionally stored a tool used to entry safe navy networks and supplied it to Chinese language officers to assist them break into these methods.He remained overseas, primarily in Hong Kong, till October 2023 when he returned to the US and was arrested upon arrival in San Francisco airport.
