Ex-Army soldier pleads guilty to trying to pass US secrets to China

(CN) — A former U.S. Army sergeant accused of attempting to pass sensitive American defense information to the Chinese government changed his plea to guilty on Wednesday.

Joseph D. Schmidt, 31, appeared in a sparse federal courtroom in Seattle, presided over by U.S. Magistrate Judge Brian Tsuchida, where he agreed to plead guilty and not to seek additional and classified information nor share information with the media.

Federal agents arrested Schmidt in October 2023 and charged him with one count of attempting to deliver national defense information and one count of retaining national defense information. Both charges carry a penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine each.

Schmidt initially pleaded not guilty to the charges shortly after his arrest. A competency hearing held earlier this year ruled him fit to stand trial.

During his active duty from 2015 to 2020, Schmidt was assigned to the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, around nine miles south of Tacoma, Washington.

The Justice Department said Schmidt had access to secret and top-secret information, led intelligence operations and studied Mandarin in his work supporting the Indo-Pacific Command, which includes China.

While on duty, Schmidt had shown interest in China and had even traveled there once during his tenure with the Army, according to court documents.

In the month after he left active duty in 2020, he traveled again to Beijing and later to Turkey, where he Googled terms like “turkey extradition military defection,” “can you be extradited for treason” and “countries with negative relations with the US,” according to court documents.

He also sent an email to the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul offering his expertise in American surveillance and espionage and created a document entitled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government,” containing a variety of classified national defense information, prosecutors said. Schmidt also retained a device that allows access to secure military computer networks, which he offered to Chinese authorities, according to investigators.

Schmidt also emailed Chinese media organizations, offering to share his military stories. He then traveled to Hong Kong, where he lived for three years trying to obtain employment and a Chinese work visa until his 2023 arrest.

Investigators say Schmidt created multiple documents using classified information, including a 28-slide presentation entitled “Use of Technology in Military Source Operations and Interrogations.” Within the slideshow, Schmidt included a photo of a hand-drawn diagram of connected computer hardware and servers with references to a specific Army computer network. Investigators said the information would have “a serious adverse effect” if it were released.

Prosecutors said he emailed a Chinese state-owned enterprise offering access to top-secret intelligence technology.

“I want to apply the knowledge to enhance the capability of your company and accelerate the development of your technologies,” Schmidt emailed the enterprise, according to court documents.

Court documents are not clear as to whether Schmidt succeeded in conferring national defense information to Chinese officials.

In an email to his sister discovered by federal agents, Schmidt wrote: “I don’t talk about it often, but I learned some really terrible things about the American government while I was working in the Army, and I no longer feel safe living in America or like I want to support the American government.”

Schmidt is set to be sentenced by Ronald Reagan-appointed U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in December.