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Army intelligence analyst charged with selling military secrets to China for $42,000

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Washington — An active duty Army soldier and intelligence analyst spent over a year selling sensitive military documents related to the U.S. defense of Taiwan, weapons systems, and missile defense systems to China, federal prosecutors alleged in an indictment unsealed Thursday and obtained by CBS News. 

Sergeant Korbein Schultz is accused of using his top secret security clearance to download classified U.S. government records at the behest of an unnamed individual who claimed to live in Hong Kong, allegedly amassing $42,000 in the process.

He was arrested Thursday and charged with six counts including conspiracy and bribery. According to court filings, Schultz was a sergeant and intelligence analyst and assigned to the 506th Infantry Battalion. 

The charging documents don’t name the Chinese government as the recipient of the information or as perpetrators of the scheme, but much of the military information Schutlz is accused to have passed on relates to that country. 

Beginning in June 2022, prosecutors said Schultz and his co-conspirator began communicating online and via encrypted messaging applications. He was instructed to prioritize passing along “original and exclusive documents” to his handler, including information related to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the “operabitly of sensitive U.S. military systems and their capabilities,” court documents said.

The pair allegedly agreed to enter into a long-term partnership. 

By July 2022, investigators alleged Schultz was sending information about High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, the type of systems the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine to use against Russia. He is also accused of transmitting sensitive documents about hypersonic equipment and summaries of U.S. military drills in August 2022. 

Court documents detailed a months-long exchange in which the unnamed co-conspirator asked for specific documents and Schutlz complied, selling dozens of sensitive records for thousands of dollars at a time. 

Money appeared to be his motivation. In one message, Schultz allegedly told his handler, “I need to get my other BMW back.” 

“I will just keep sending you an abundance of information,” he wrote to the coconspirator, according to prosecutors, later expressing a desire to compare himself to Jason Bourne, the fictional spy created by author Robert Ludlum.

By August of 2023, Schultz — whose job was in part to instruct others on the proper handling of classified information — discussed with his Chinese handler the separate arrests that month of two U.S. Navy sailors accused of transmitting sensitive information to China. 

Schultz’s co conspirators advised him to be careful, court papers revealed. 

And in November 2023, prosecutors alleged the handler asked Schultz to discuss work “for the next year.” 

The charges come days after Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Texeira pleaded guilty to illegally posting classified military records on an online gaming platform in one of the military’s most damaging leak campaigns. 

And on Tuesday, an Air Force employee was charged with leaking classified information related to Russia’s war in Ukraine to an individual over a foreign dating site. 

It was not immediately clear if Schultz had an attorney. 



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UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell says Gaza is a “hellscape for children”

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UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell says Gaza is a “hellscape for children” – CBS News


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UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell tells “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the malnutrition, hygiene and mental health for children in Gaza is “all terrible,” adding that it’s a “hellscape for children.”

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Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a “better job” of letting Americans know “there’s a huge amount of misinformation” on election

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Washington — Sen. Mark Kelly said Sunday that the federal government needs to do its part to inform Americans of the vast swath of election misinformation that’s being consumed on social media platforms like X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and in the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on Nov.  5,” Kelly said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” 

Kelly, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he’s seen these misinformation operations target not only his state of Arizona, but also other battleground states.

“There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” Kelly said.

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Sen. Mark Kelly on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Oct. 6, 2024.

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In a committee hearing last month on foreign threats to the 2024 election, Kelly presented screenshots of Russian-made web pages showing fabricated headlines designed to look like Fox News and The Washington Post, targeted at voters in battleground states. 

“So my constituents in Arizona and others — they seek to influence the outcome of these elections, and that is absolutely beyond the pale,” Kelly said at the Sept. 18 hearing. “We’ve got to do something about it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump each have the support of 49% of Arizona voters, according to CBS News’ battleground tracker as of Sept. 30. 

In another battleground state, Pennsylvania, Trump returned Saturday to hold a rally in Butler three months after an attempted assassination on him. He was joined by members of his own party and billionaire Elon Musk, who said Trump was the only way to preserve democracy and warned of a last election if he does not win in November. 

Speaking to CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, Kelly called the social media mogul a hypocrite. 

“He’s standing next to the guy that tried to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, saying that this is somehow going to be the last election and they’re going to take away your vote,” Kelly said. “And you know, it just doesn’t pass the logic test.”

At the White House press briefing on Friday, President Biden – speaking from the podium for the first time since taking office – said he’s confident of a free and fair election but alluded to the 2021 insurrection at the Capitol in his concerns on whether it will be a peaceful transfer of power.    

“The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn’t like the outcome of the election were very dangerous,” Mr. Biden said. “If you notice, I noticed that the vice-presidential Republican candidate did not say he’d accept the outcome of the election, and they haven’t even accepted the outcome of the last election.”



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Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie says Iran is the country that’s in a corner

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Ret. Gen. Frank McKenzie says Iran is the country that’s in a corner – CBS News


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Retired Gen. Frank McKenzie, the former commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, tells “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that “Iran is the country that’s in a corner” in the conflict in the Middle East, and says the “Israelis are certainly going to hit back.”

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