Free Republic

Another update from your FBI on our efforts to defend the homeland and protect the American people. Today, State Department employee Michael Charles Schena was sentenced to 48 months in prison for attempting to sell out his country. He was paid to use a covert communication device to take pictures of CLASSIFIED documents containing national defense information and then send them to individuals he believed worked for the Chinese government. Schena’s actions directly undermined U.S. national security and put Americans at risk. No amount of money is worth betraying your country, and the FBI will do EVERYTHING in our power...

View the complaint affidavit.Michael Charles Schena, 42, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested on criminal charges related to his alleged participation in a criminal conspiracy to gather, transmit, or lose national defense information.According to court documents, Schena is employed by the U.S. Department of State (DOS) working out of DOS Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Schena held a top secret security clearance and had access to information up to the secret level within his DOS workspace. Beginning in or about April 2022, Schena allegedly communicated with people he met online through various communication platforms and provided them with information they were not...