Leak suspect who posted Ukraine war docs on Discord gets 16 years in plea deal
Jack Teixeira, a Massachusetts Air National Guard member, has been sentenced to 16 years in jail after pleading guilty to uploading national secrets on a chat app.
Teixeira is accused of leaking military documents about the Russia-Ukraine war online. On Monday, Teixeira accepted a 16-year jail term as part of a plea deal, admitting to six counts of espionage. In return, Boston prosecutors agreed not to present any further charges.
The 22-year-old has been in jail since his arrest last April in a case that caused concern over America's ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced the Biden administration to scramble to try to contain diplomatic and military fallout.
At the time he stole and posted the documents, Teixeira was 21. He was seen several times and had even pocketed documents marked 'top secret,' according to the court documents. Teixeira posted the national secrets to a group on Discord, an app popular with gamers.
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Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira is led away (WBZ)The leak led the Pentagon to tighten controls to safeguard classified information, and the Air Force disciplined 15 personnel as its inspector general found last year that multiple officials intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira's suspicious behaviour.
Teixeira had previously pleaded not guilty to six counts of wilful retention and transmission of national defence information under the Espionage Act. Each count is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Teixeira's behaviour was put in the spotlight before his guilty plea (Facebook/)Last year, a judge ordered Teixeira to stay in jail while waiting for his trial. This was after prosecutors revealed that Teixeira kept an arsenal of guns and said on social media that he would like to kill a "ton of people."
Prosecutors added that "enemies of the U.S." who might want to extort more information from Teixeira could help him escape.
Teixeira is still part of the Air National Guard but he's on unpaid leave, according to the Air Force. Neither the prosecutors nor the defence lawyers have given more details about Teixeira's plea agreement. A lawyer for Teixeira hasn't replied to messages asking for a comment.
View of the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse where Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira pled guilty (AFP via Getty Images)Teixeira was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts when authorities say he illegally collected military secrets. Teixeira worked as a "cyber transport systems specialist," an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks.
Authorities said he first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. The leak showed the world's secret assessments of Russia's war in Ukraine, the capabilities and geopolitical interests of other nations and other national security issues.
Prosecutors haven't disclosed a motive, if they've found one. Members of the Discord group suggested Teixeira was more interested in showing off rather than wanting to tell people about U.S. military actions or change American policy.
Teixeira continued to reveal government secrets even after his bosses noticed and warned him that he wasn't handling classified information correctly. Teixeira was seen taking notes on intelligence information and putting them in his pocket.
The Air Force inspector general found that members "intentionally failed to report the full details" of Teixeira's unauthorized actions because they thought security might take it too far.
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For example, despite confronting Teixeira about a certain note, there was no follow-up to ensure the note had been destroyed, and security wasn't informed.
It was not until a January 2023 incident that the appropriate security officials were notified, but even then security officials were not briefed on the full scope of the violations.
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