Pentagon leaks: Jack Teixeira, suspected of sharing highly classified military intelligence, appears in court

A 21-year-old Air Guardsman suspected of leaking highly classified US intelligence documents made his first appearance in court on Friday, where he was charged with illegally sharing top-secret national defence information.

Jack Teixeira entered the courtroom in handcuffs wearing a tan prison uniform, according to local media. Cameras were not allowed to film the hearing. A hearing on his detention will take place next week, according to the US attorney for Massachusetts, where the case is being heard.

According to court documents, Mr Teixeira is charged with unauthorised retention and transmission of national defence information and unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents or material. He potentially faces a long prison sentence, as each of the charges named in the complaint carry terms of up to 10 years.

Mr Teixeira’s appearance comes after a fast-moving investigation into the leak of more than 100 classified documents on social media, which started on the messaging platform Discord. Some were later published on Telegram and Twitter. They largely focus on the war in Ukraine, but also include information intercepted by the US from allies such as South Korea and Israel.

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Court filings from the FBI on Friday shed new light on the events leading up to his arrest by FBI agents at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, where he was believed to be living with his mother.

[ Pentagon leaks: when top secret is no secret after all ]

[ Jack Teixeira: The gamer who shook the intelligence world ]

According to a sworn statement from an FBI agent investigating the leak, agents interviewed a user of a social media platform – believed to be Discord – who later posted classified information supplied by Mr Teixeira on the internet. The user said Mr Teixeira began posting classified information on the platform in December 2022 on a server meant to discuss geopolitical affairs and current and historical wars.

The filing said Mr Teixeira initially posted the government information as paragraphs of text but began providing photographs of documents in January 2023. He told the fellow Discord user that he had begun taking the documents home and photographing them out of concern he would be discovered making transcriptions of them in the workplace, according to the court filing.

On April 6th – around the time of the first public reports of the incident – Mr Teixeira searched for the word “leak” on classified systems, which the FBI believed meant he was looking for the intelligence community’s assessment of the leaker’s identity, according to the filing.

The platform identified in the documents provided records about Mr Teixeira on April 12th. His account information included his name and billing address with a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, that was listed as his primary residence on his employment paperwork.

The embarrassing saga has raised new concerns about the security of US government secrets and who can access them. Mr Teixeira was a junior enlisted service member who worked on making sure the Air Force’s communications networks operated properly.

The hundreds of documents he is accused of accessing and leaking on the web did not appear to have any relevance to his job function. According to his service record, Mr Teixeira was assigned to Otis Air National Guard Base on Joint Base Cape Cod. According to the Air Force’s website, his job required a “single scope” background investigation, which is needed for a top-secret clearance.

– Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2023