‘Secret Document Leak’: A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents is back in court Wednesday for a hearing to decide whether he should remain behind bars while he awaits trial.
Jack Teixeira, 21, was arrested by heavily armed tactical agents from his Massachusetts home last week and charged with unauthorized retention and dissemination of classified national defense information under the Espionage Act. During her first appearance in federal court in Boston on Friday, a magistrate judge ordered her to remain in custody until Wednesday’s custody hearing.
Highly classified military documents shared
Teixeira is accused of sharing highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other top national security issues in a chat room on Discord, a social media platform that began as a hangout for gamers. The revelation of the astonishingly secretive intelligence has caused an international outcry and raised new questions about America’s ability to keep its secrets safe.
Air Force leaders said Tuesday they are investigating how a single airman could possibly access and distribute hundreds of highly classified documents. The Air Force has also withdrawn the intelligence mission from the Air National Guard 102nd Intelligence Wing based in Cape Cod – where Teixeira served – for further review.
Court records unsealed last week revealed how the FBI led authorities to Teixeira because of billing records obtained from Discord and interviews with a social media comrade.
leader of an online private chat group
Investigators believe he was the leader of an online private chat group on Discord called Thug Shaker Central, which attracted about two dozen enthusiasts who talked about their favorite types of guns and shared memes and jokes. , some of them were racist. The group also discussed those wars, including talk of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
A Discord user familiar with Teixeira’s online posts told the FBI that a username associated with Teixeira began posting largely classified information in December. According to the affidavit, the man provided the FBI with basic identifying information about Teixeira, including that he called himself “Jack”, claimed to be part of the Air National Guard and lived in Massachusetts.
The man also told the FBI that Teixeira switched from typing the documents in his possession to taking them home and photographing them because he “became concerned that he might be discovered transcribing text in the workplace”. could.”
Teixeira was detected on 6 April
Posters have told The Associated Press and other media outlets that the user who calls himself “OG” began posting images of the documents because he was annoyed that other users weren’t taking him seriously.
The affidavit alleges that Teixeira learned on April 6 – the day The New York Times first published a story about the breach of the documents – that he discovered the word “leaked” in a classified system. The FBI says it had reason to believe Teixeira was trying to find information about the investigation into those responsible for the leak.
(with inputs from AP)