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Boston, MA – Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, stands accused of leaking highly classified military documents. Notably, his superiors raised red flags several times about his conduct around sensitive data, a revelation made in a recent court filing.
The Department of Justice revealed these allegations during its push for Teixeira’s detention while his trial continues, a case that underscores the gravity of intelligence leaks in recent years. A magistrate judge is scheduled to hear further arguments about the prosecutors’ detention request on Friday.
The charges leveled against Teixeira relate to sharing sensitive documents about critical national security matters on Discord, a social media platform initially designed for gaming communities. Teixeira is yet to enter his plea.
Prosecutors underscored that despite being warned twice last year about his “concerning actions” with classified information, Teixeira continued his document leaks.
A September memo from the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Air National Guard details how Teixeira was spotted taking notes from classified intelligence and pocketing them. Consequently, he was directed not to make any form of notes from such sensitive information.
In late October, another memo surfaced, revealing that Teixeira had potentially violated the cease-and-desist order against him, given a month earlier, concerning his delving into intelligence information. After attending a meeting where he asked highly specific questions, he was once again advised to concentrate on his job, not on unauthorized investigations into classified intelligence.
Despite these warnings, a third memo from February revealed that Teixeira was again caught reviewing unrelated intelligence information. He had been previously instructed to focus on his own duties and not to seek out intelligence products.
Prosecutors point out that even after multiple warnings, Teixeira continued sharing sensitive data online, and even took extra measures to hide his unlawful behavior.
Teixeira, arrested last month on charges under the Espionage Act, has his lawyers pushing for his release to his father’s home. His defense points out that he didn’t attempt to flee even when the media published his name shortly before his April 13 arrest. His lawyer assured the court that Teixeira plans to face the charges and receive judgment from his peers.
Teixeira’s defense team also pointed out that many Espionage Act cases have either been granted pretrial release or the government didn’t push for pretrial detention. They further stated there is no evidence of Teixeira’s intention to distribute the documents widely.
Contrarily, prosecutors argue that the social media server where Teixeira posted the classified information had at least 150 users at the time and possibly many more users actively seeking access to such data.
Among the people Teixeira allegedly shared the information with, some claimed to reside in foreign countries, accessing the platform via international IP addresses. Prosecutors say Teixeira even bragged about the extent of information at his disposal and admitted to sharing information he shouldn’t.
Magistrate Judge David Hennessy, who heard arguments regarding detention last month, has not issued a ruling yet and scheduled a second hearing for Friday. Earlier court documents revealed that Teixeira had accumulated a stockpile of weapons before his arrest and had a history of violent and disturbing remarks.
The leaked documents seem to detail U.S. and NATO aid to Ukraine and U.S. intelligence assessments regarding U.S. allies, potentially straining ties with those nations. Some documents showed real-time details from February and March of Ukraine’s and Russia’s battlefield positions, including exact counts of lost and incoming battlefield gear from Ukraine’s allies.
Source: Associated Press
