- Oct 17, 2011
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Federal agents took 29-year-old Joseph Daniel Schmidt into custody at the San Francisco airport this morning, officials said. He faces one count of trying to deliver national defense information and one count of retention of national defense information.
Those efforts [to pass secrets] began, court papers say, just over a month after Schmidt left the military when he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Investigators say his internet search history at the time includes searches for how to defect, including searching "countries that dont extradite" and "can you be extradited for treason."
While in Istanbul, Schmidt sent an email from his Gmail account to the public email address for the Chinese Consulate there.
Two days later, Schmidt allegedly created a Word document entitled, "Important Information to Share with Chinese Government." The document, which investigators recovered from Schmidt's Apple iCloud account, was later assessed by the Army to contain classified information.
In March 2020, Schmidt allegedly traveled to Hong Kong and then Beijing. While in the Chinese capital, he conducted several Google searches, including "What Do Real Spies Do..." [maybe he should have started with that earlier in his plan]
In May 2020, Schmidt allegedly sent an email to his sister in which he says he left the U.S. because of "a disagreement with American policy."
"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 wrote, according to court papers.
Those efforts [to pass secrets] began, court papers say, just over a month after Schmidt left the military when he traveled to Istanbul, Turkey. Investigators say his internet search history at the time includes searches for how to defect, including searching "countries that dont extradite" and "can you be extradited for treason."
While in Istanbul, Schmidt sent an email from his Gmail account to the public email address for the Chinese Consulate there.
Two days later, Schmidt allegedly created a Word document entitled, "Important Information to Share with Chinese Government." The document, which investigators recovered from Schmidt's Apple iCloud account, was later assessed by the Army to contain classified information.
In March 2020, Schmidt allegedly traveled to Hong Kong and then Beijing. While in the Chinese capital, he conducted several Google searches, including "What Do Real Spies Do..." [maybe he should have started with that earlier in his plan]
In May 2020, Schmidt allegedly sent an email to his sister in which he says he left the U.S. because of "a disagreement with American policy."
"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 wrote, according to court papers.
