A former Joint Base Lewis-McChord Army sergeant who admitted to giving U.S. national defense secrets to China for work visas must serve four years in prison, a federal judge ruled this week.

Joseph Schmidt served in the Army from 2015 to 2020. He gave Chinese intelligence officials access to “high level secrets,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Western Washington. He was indicted in 2023 on one count of attempting to deliver national defense information and one count of retention of national defense information, according to court records.

He pleaded guilty as charged in June.

Schmidt served in the 109th Military Intelligence Battalion. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour took his mental health struggles into account during sentencing.

Federal prosecutors had recommended

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