Authorities have arrested a former U.S. Army Sergeant who had last been stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) for allegedly trying to hand over classified defense information to China.
Twenty-nine-year-old Joseph Schmidt was stationed at JBLM between 2015 and 2020 and had access to top secret information over that period. It’s believed that he made contact with the Chinese Consulate in Turkey after he left the military and emailed Chinese security services, each time attempting to offer up information.
Court documents detail how Schmidt had attempted to set up frequent trips China, stating on a visa application that he planned to visit “every New Year to learn about Chinese culture.” He also submitted two leave requests with the Army for planned trips to China between August 2017 and April 2018, but did not end up following through “for reasons unknown.”
Six days after he officially entered inactive duty in January of 2020, he left on a flight for Beijing before returning to the United States four days later.
Weeks after that, he made a series of Google and Reddit searches for information related to defecting and spying. Those searches included:
- “subreddit spying”
- “looking for a subreddit about spy stuff”
- “what is China’s intelligence agency”
- “how did [specified U.S. Person] defect”
- “can you be extradited for treason”
- “soldier defect”
He also visited a page on Reddit titled “What Do Real Spies Do and How are they Recruited.”
Schmidt then sent an email to the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul, offering to “share information I learned during my career as an interrogator.”
“I have a current top secret clearance, and would like to talk to someone from the Government to share this information with you if that is possible,” the email read. “My experience includes training in interrogation, running sources as a spy handler, surveillance detection, and other advanced psychological operation strategies. I would like to go over the details with you in person if possible, as I am concerned with discussing this over email.”
Two days later, Schmidt created a Word document titled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government,” which contained “a variety of classified information that relates to national defense,” according to court documents.
The next month, he traveled to Hong Kong to allegedly offer Chinese authorities a device capable of accessing secure military computer networks. He had been in China ever since, until he flew back to the U.S. this week. He was arrested at the San Francisco airport early Friday morning.
He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
©2023 Cox Media Group
