A federal judge sentenced a former Army intelligence sergeant to 4 years in prison on Tuesday for offering national defense secrets to China. Sergeant Joseph Daniel Schmidt, who had top secret clearance, served in western Washington at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where he worked in military intelligence.
According to court documents, he served in the Army from January 2015 to January 2020. Schmidt was discharged after a mental health episode in late 2019.
The judge said he considered Schmidt’s mental health as well as the seriousness of the crime in sentencing him to 4 years in prison. Schmidt’s public defender requested that he be sentenced for time served, arguing that the crime was the result of schizophrenia. Schmidt mistakenly believed he was “subject to a mind control network operated by the FBI and [was] hoping to warn the Chinese government about the Program,” according to the public defender Dennis Carroll….
Ex-Army Sergeant Sentenced to 4 Years for Offering Secrets to China
