A former Army sergeant who once held top-secret clearance at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state was sentenced Tuesday to four years in federal prison for attempting to provide national defense information to China.

Joseph Daniel Schmidt, 31, pleaded guilty in June to attempting to deliver and retain classified material, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour also ordered three years of supervised release.

Schmidt's sentencing comes as U.S. authorities warn of growing efforts by China to recruit or exploit former military personnel with access to sensitive information.

"As a retired Army officer, I find it unconscionable for a former soldier to put his colleagues and country at risk by peddling secret information and intelligence access to a hostile foreign power," Acting U.S. Attorney Charles Neil Floyd said.

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Schmidt enlisted in 2015, and served in the Army’s 109th Military Intelligence Battalion until 2020. Prosecutors said he had access to both secret and top secret systems and later contacted Chinese consular officials after leaving the Army.

Court records show Schmidt created multiple documents based on classified material and offered them to Chinese security services. He also kept a device capable of accessing secure Army networks, which prosecutors said he offered to Chinese officials.

After leaving the Army, Schmidt traveled to Hong Kong in March 2020 and continued corresponding with Chinese contacts. He lived there for more than three years before flying to San Francisco in October 2023, where he was arrested. He pleaded guilty in June 2025, and was sentenced Tuesday in Seattle.

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Coughenour said he weighed "the seriousness of Schmidt’s crime and his mental health at the time." A DOJ spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital the judge considered Schmidt’s mental health as a mitigating factor during sentencing. 

The agency said Schmidt’s separation from the Army followed a mental health episode, and officials added that no classified material was believed to have reached China.

"The FBI and our partners will remain vigilant in our mission to safeguard our nation," said W. Mike Herrington, special agent in charge of the Seattle field office.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg said Schmidt "created documents based on classified and national defense information. He used his training to provide sensitive information to the Chinese security service. He knew what he was doing was wrong – he was doing web searches for such things as ‘Can you be extradited for treason.’"

The FBI investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command (USACC).

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Seattle Field Office with assistance from the USACC.

The Army did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

The ongoing investigation into Virginia Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones’ reckless driving arrest and ensuing 1,000 service hours has now moved to its third jurisdiction – 200 miles across the state.

New Kent County Commonwealth’s Attorney Scott Renick was the original lead prosecutor in the case – before he recused himself last week in a notice to Judge Elliott Bondurant – who then appointed James City County Commonwealth’s Attorney Nathan Green to continue the probe.

Jones was originally picked up in 2022 in New Kent for going 116 mph on the notorious straight-arrow stretch of Interstate 64 between Charles City and the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel.

Bondurant has since signed off on a new recusal from Green, and punted the case from Williamsburg to Roanoke.

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Known for its famous Mill Mountain Star atop a verdant stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway, contemporary downtown and industrial history remembered through iconic neon signage dotting its skyline, Roanoke is in very different confines from where Jones' original case took place.

New Kent and James City counties are reliably Republican, while Roanoke stands out in stark contrast as a dark blue circle on the map surrounded by deep-red Roanoke County and the conservative New River Valley.

The Star City’s lead prosecutor, Donald Caldwell, is a Democrat-turned-independent who is also the longest-tenured Commonwealth’s Attorney in Virginia, having been in office since 1979. He will be stepping down after his current term, according to reports.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Caldwell’s office for a statement on his office taking the case.

Green officially informed Bondurant on Thursday that he would be recusing himself because it would "be improper" for him to lead the investigation of Jones, without elaborating.

Jones recently represented nearby Norfolk in the state legislature, and later worked for the Protogyrou law firm in the city – which represented him in his reckless driving case.

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Bondurant’s latest order, obtained by the Newport News Daily Press, kicked the case clear across to Roanoke in order to make it geographically distant from the Ninth Judicial Circuit -- which comprises both original jurisdictions and Virginia’s Northern Neck.

The move to Roanoke did just that as the Star City is four hours due west on US-460.

Questions have arisen about the validity or specifics of Jones’ 1,000 hours of community service – split evenly between his own political action committee: Meet Our Moment, and the NAACP of Virginia.

Representatives from both organizations submitted sworn documents obtained by Fox News Digital attesting to the work Jones purportedly completed, but no time logs or other documentation have been released or been made available as that timeframe accounts for nearly 20 hours per week over the course of the case – hearings for which had been delayed several times.

Specifics were also lacking in the sworn statements, as Rev. Cozy Bailey – leader of the state’s NAACP chapter – wrote that Jones "provided support in a variety of ways that benefited our organization tremendously."

A Freedom of Information Act request for documents and communications between New Kent County and the signatories of Jones hours returned a notification Tuesday that records could not be shared due to a section of Virginia code showing they would interfere with a particular ongoing criminal investigation or proceed in a "particularly identifiable manner."