In a major September 4 press release, the Attorney General Pam Bondi-led Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that it had managed to get a tough conviction and sentence for the State Department employee it caught sending classified information to the People’s Republic of China.
For reference, the individual involved is a former State Department employee who lived in Alexandria, Virginia, the heart of the DC Swamp, and who attempted to use a cellphone provided to him by agents working for the People’s Republic of China to take pictures of and transmit, also to the PRC, classified documents.
Describing how he was caught and arrested, and what happened in the case generally, the DOJ provided, “According to court documents, beginning in April 2022, Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, communicated with people he met online through various communication platforms and provided them sensitive U.S. government information, in exchange for money.”
Continuing, the statement from the DOJ further noted, “Two of these individuals represented themselves as employees of international consulting companies. Despite clear indications and believing that they were working on behalf of the PRC, Schena continued his relationship with them.”
Then, describing the transnational nature of the crime and how the State Department employee acted from Peru, the DOJ said, “In August 2024, Schena met an individual at a hotel in Peru who provided Schena $10,000 and a cellphone that was intended to be used for Schena to receive taskings and transmit information.”
Adding to that by covering how he started transmitting classified national defense information to China, the statement noted, “In October 2024, while at work, Schena used the cellphone he received in Peru to photograph and transmit at least four classified documents that contained national defense information and which were classified at the SECRET level.”
And, concluding the description of the incident by describing how the Trump Administration caught him before he was able to send those pieces of classified information to Red China, saying, “In February 2025, surveillance video captured Schena again using the cellphone to photograph seven documents marked as SECRET that contained national defense information. FBI agents seized the cellphone before Schena could transmit photographs of these classified documents to his handlers, and arrested Schena.”
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For all of that, the State Department employee earned himself four years in prison, saying, “A U.S. Department of State (DOS) employee was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for conspiring to collect and transmit national defense information to individuals he believed to be working for the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC).”
Commenting on the matter in the press release, Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg said, “The defendant threw away his career, betrayed his country, and abused the trust the United States placed in him by granting his Top-Secret security clearance.”
Continuing, the Assistant AG said, “He will spend years of his life in prison for passing classified information to individuals he believed to be Chinese government agents. Today’s sentence serves as a warning to those who would violate the trust placed in them by our Nation and double-cross the American people.”