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Makakilo man takes plea deal in espionage case

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Benjamin Bishop was sent to Mahoney Hale from Honolulu's federal detention center on Friday.

A former civilian defense contractor in Hawaii is pleading guilty to charges he divulged military secrets to his Chinese girlfriend and kept classified documents at his suburban home in west Oahu.

Benjamin Bishop on Thursday entered his plea at U.S. District Court in Honolulu. Sentencing was set for June 26.

The 60-year-old says he mentioned a classified conference between the United States and South Korea while responding to an email from the 28-year-old girlfriend.

Bishop says he also had classified documents at home, but he didn’t show them to anyone.

Court documents say the materials Bishop kept included information on the Pentagon’s China strategy and one on the U.S. military’s force posture in Asia and the Pacific.

Bishop faces up to 10 years in prison on each of two counts.

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