Ex-US Army intelligence officer arrested for sharing 'classified' information with China

NEW DELHI: The US government has

arrested

its former army

intelligence officer

allegedly for attempting to assist Chinese security services by providing them "classified defence information" during the Covid pandemic, reported The Guardian.
The authorities arrested Joseph Daniel

Schmidt

(29), at San Francisco International Airport after he arrived from Hong Kong. Schmidt had been living in Hong Kong since March 2020, as per the Justice Department.
According to The Guardian, a Seattle federal grand jury "returned an indictment on Wednesday charging him with retention and attempted delivery of national defence information". It has been alleged that a document titled “Important Information to Share with Chinese Government” was found in his Microsoft Word document.
US District Court records in Seattle did not list an attorney representing Schmidt on the charges, and neither the US Attorney’s Office nor the Federal Public Defender’s Office had information about whether he had a lawyer, representatives said. The situation remains unclear as legal proceedings continue.

According to an FBI declaration submitted in the case, Schmidt mentioned in an email to his sister that he departed the United States due to disagreements with certain aspects of US policy.
“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,” he was quoted as writing, according to The Guardian.

Schmidt served for five years in the Army, primarily stationed at the 109th Military

Intelligence

Battalion at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state. This information was disclosed in a declaration submitted to the US District Court by FBI Special Agent Brandon Tower, reported The Guardian.
Schmidt also attained the position of team leader within a human intelligence squad, granting him access to classified defence information, including both secret and top-secret materials, as detailed by Tower in the declaration.