A former Army intelligence sergeant once trusted with America’s most sensitive military secrets will serve only four years in prison after trying to pass top-secret information to the Chinese government, all because a federal judge decided to show leniency over his mental health.
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, was once stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington as part of the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion.
He held Top Secret clearance and had access to defense data so sensitive it could compromise national security if exposed.
But according to the Department of Justice, after leaving the Army in 2020, Schmidt reached out directly to the Chinese Consulate in Turkey and later emailed Chinese security services offering to sell national defense information.
In March 2020, Schmidt traveled to Hong Kong, then under Beijing’s tightening grip, and drafted detailed documents outlining “high-level secrets” he was willing to hand over to the Chinese government.
Among the items he kept was a classified access device capable of connecting to secure U.S. military computer systems. Prosecutors said Schmidt offered it to Chinese intelligence agents to “assist them” in breaching American networks.
Schmidt stayed overseas for several years, living mostly in Hong Kong under Chinese control, until October 2023, when he boarded a flight to San Francisco and was promptly arrested upon arrival at the airport.
Despite the clear gravity of the crime — attempting to deliver national defense information to a foreign adversary — Judge John C. Coughenour sentenced him to only four years in prison and three years of supervised release, far below the maximum 20-year penalty for the two espionage-related counts.
According to the DOJ, “Attempt to deliver national defense information and retention of national defense information are both punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.”
“The court weighed the seriousness of Schmidt’s crime and his mental health at the time,” a DOJ spokesperson told Fox News, confirming that Coughenour viewed his mental condition as a mitigating factor.
Schmidt’s so-called “mental episode” reportedly led to his separation from the Army, and the DOJ says no classified information ultimately reached China.
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