The former member of the US Air National Guard who pleaded guilty to a resounding leak of secret documents was sentenced on Tuesday, November 12, to fifteen years in prison by a federal court in Boston (Massachusetts).
Jack Teixeira, 22, was arrested in April 2023 at his parents’ home, near Boston, after several days of investigation by the federal police (FBI), alerted by a series of leaks of classified documents.
These documents, shared in a discussion group on the Discord platform and then distributed on other social networks, revealed the concerns of the American services about the feasibility, in 2023, of a Ukrainian counteroffensive. They also implied that the United States was gathering intelligence on its closest partners, particularly Israel and South Korea.
“I’m sorry for everything I did wrong.”Jack Teixeira apologized before Judge Indira Talwani, who pronounced the sentence. “I understand that all responsibilities fall solely on my shoulders. And I accept the consequences.”he added, according to American media present in the courtroom. “You may be young, but you probably know better than my generation how easily things spread on the Internet.”declared the judge.
Rifles and bazooka found in man’s house
The matter had embarrassed Washington and raised questions about possible security breaches, as the young soldier had a secret defense clearance that allowed him access to this sensitive information despite his modest rank.
This is one of the largest leaks of confidential documents since Edward Snowden’s revelations in 2013 about massive electronic espionage by the US National Security Agency (NSA), which led to the launcher being alerted to leave the United States and took refuge in Russia.
Jack Teixeira joined the Air National Guard in September 2019 and achieved the rank of enlisted first class in May 2022, the third lowest in the hierarchy. At the Otis base, south of Boston, he was an IT and communications specialist and, in February 2023, he worked in cyber defense operations.
His group on Discord was mainly made up of young people who were passionate about weapons and military equipment. According to prosecutors, Jack Teixeira “Regularly expressed comments about violence and murder” on social networks. The prosecution also noted that he possessed several weapons, some “a few meters from his bed” and that the search of his mother and father’s houses had revealed “almost an arsenal”including rifles and a bazooka. His lawyers, on the contrary, portrayed a young man with intentions “naive”especially wanting to impress the members of his group.
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After his arrest, Jack Teixeira initially denied the charges, but ultimately pleaded guilty to six counts of “voluntary retention and transmission of information relating to national defense”avoiding a trial that could have earned him a harsher sentence. However, this matter is not over, because the American army is also pursuing him before military justice and he will be tried before a court martial.
