The Navy has convicted a chief petty officer of attempted espionage, among other charges, at a court-martial in San Diego after the sailor was charged with sharing classified documents under the guise of writing research papers.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service said in a press release Friday that, following a seven-day trial, Chief Petty Officer Bryce Pedicini, who was previously assigned to the USS Higgins, was found guilty at a general court-martial of attempted espionage, failure to obey a lawful order, and attempted violation of a lawful general order.
The conviction comes at a time when a growing number of sailors appear to be falling for Chinese efforts to recruit spies and obtain classified information and, while it is not known what country Pedicini tried to spy for, he is at least the third sailor in about a year to face espionage-related charges.
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Pedicini is set to be sentenced by a military judge on May 7, according to NCIS.
Charging documents released by the Navy showed that Pedicini was accused of delivering two sets of classified national defense documents — referred to as “Article 1112” and “Article 1223” in the legal paperwork — to “a citizen and employee of a foreign government” between November 2022 and February 2023 in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
The charging documents go on to say that the pair…
