June 15 (UPI) — A federal grand jury on Thursday indicted Massachusetts Air National Guardsmen Jack Teixeira on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense.
Texeira, 21, has been accused of using his security clearance to take classified documents and post them on social media sites.
“As laid out in the indictment, Jack Teixeira was entrusted by the United States government with access to classified national defense information — including information that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared,” Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement. “Teixeira is charged with sharing information with users on a social media platform he knew were not entitled to receive it. In doing so, he is alleged to have violated U.S. law and endangered our national security.”
Teixeira worked in government intelligence as a cyberdefense operations journeyman, giving him access to the top-secret documents that first appeared on the social gaming platform Discord, which Teixeira regularly used, as early as December.
The documents he allegedly shared revealed covert information about pressing national security matters, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the military was unaware of the leak for months before it launched an investigation on April 7.
Teixeira was taken into custody a week later by the FBI outside his mother’s home in Dighton, Mass., where he lived.
Texeira has been in custody since his arrest, with Judge David Hennessy saying Teixeira had committed a “profound breach” and endangered “a list as long as a phone book.”
“The unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified information jeopardizes our nation’s security. Individuals granted access to classified materials have a fundamental duty to safeguard the information for the safety of the United States, our active service members, its citizens, and its allies,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring that those entrusted with sensitive national security information adhere to the law.”
