A former junior officer of the US military secret services was arrested this Friday in the United States and accused of trying to deliver national defense information to China, the Justice Department announced.
The last and primary assignment of Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 29, who served in the Army from January 2015 to January 2020, was with the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion, deployed to Lewis-McChord Army Base in Washington state , in the northwest of the country, the department said in a statement.
Joseph Daniel Schmidt, shortly after leaving the military in 2020, is suspected of “contacting the Chinese consulate in Turkey and subsequently the Chinese security services via email offering them information on national defense” .
In March 2020, the former American officer traveled to Hong Kong, where he continued his attempts to “provide the Chinese secret services with classified information obtained during his military service.”
In particular, it offered a device that preserved and allowed access to secure military computer networks, according to the same source.
The former military man “remained in China, mainly in Hong Kong, until he took a flight this week to San Francisco, where he was detained at the airport,” the ministry stated.
“Those entrusted with national defense information have a duty to continue to protect that information beyond their service to the State and certainly beyond our borders,” said Matthew Olsen, Assistant Attorney General for Homeland Security, quoted in the notice.
The former soldier is accused of attempting to deliver national defense information and receiving such information, charges that are punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
In August, two members of the US Navy working in California were detained and charged with transmitting sensitive information to China.
Source: TSF
