U.S. Pacific Command contractor, Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, was charged in federal court in Hawaii on Friday on charges of providing sensitive national security information to a Chinese national with whom he was romantically entangled.
Bishop is being charged with one count of willfully communicating national defense information to a person not entitled to receive such information and one count of unlawfully retaining documents related to the national defense. If convicted he could face 20 years in prison.
“This case is being investigated by the FBI Honolulu Division and the NCIS Hawaii Field Office in coordination with USPACOM and the U.S. Army,” according to a release from U.S. District Attorney’s, District of Hawaii office.
The following is the March, 14 FBI affidavit from court documents. The document outlines the relationship Bishop had with the woman, identified only as “PERSON 1.”
PERSON 1 is a citizen of the People’s Republic of China in the U.S. on a J1 Visa as a student, according to the document.
Among the documents the FBI found in Bishop’s possession included the “Defense Planning Guidance 2014-2018,” a secret strategic budget-planning document. Phone calls between Bishop and PERSON 1, monitored by the FBI and reviewed by the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, included information on missile deployments in the Pacific Rim.