Former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking top-secret military documents to his internet friends over Discord, is set to be arraigned on charges in Worcester, Mass., federal court Wednesday afternoon. (Instagram)
(Tribune News Service) — A former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking top-secret military documents to his internet friends over Discord is set to be arraigned on charges in federal court in Worcester, Mass., on Wednesday afternoon, according to court documents.
Jack Teixeira of North Dighton, Mass., has been accused by prosecutors of retaining and transmitting classified national defense information on a social media chat room for gamers called Discord.
On June 15 a Boston federal grand jury indicted the 23-year-old on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense, according to the Department of Justice.
Teixeira is accused of sharing top-secret documents about the war in Ukraine on Discord, a communication platform popular amongst video gamers. Officials said he accessed Discord while employed at the Otis Air National Guard Base.
He was arrested and charged in April under the Espionage Act and faces up to 25 years in prison.
United States District Court Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy had granted the government’s motion for detention and Teixeira has remained in federal custody since.
“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,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy in the press release. “We are committed to ensuring that those entrusted with sensitive national security information adhere to the law.”
Teixeira enlisted in the U.S. Air National Guard in 2019, officials have said. Since May 2022, he held the rank of an E-3/Airman, with the title of Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman.
A government memo says that starting around February 2022, Teixeira began to “access hundreds of classified documents containing national defense information that had no bearing on his role as essentially an information technology (”IT”) support specialist.
Teixeira’s lawyers contend it was another social media user who disseminated the military secrets. They say Teixeira shared the material with a “small, private” group.
Officials say Teixeira transmitted classified national defense information on Discord in two different ways in 2022.
Prosecutors say he accessed classified documents containing national defense information from a classified workstation at the Otis United States Air National Guard Base, and then transcribed and transmitted the information in written paragraphs to other users on Discord.
The other way officials say he sent information was by posting images of classified documents, which had classification markings such as “SECRET” or “TOP SECRET,” to Discord.
At least one of the documents containing national defense information was found in digital form in a particular account associated with Teixeira, according to the report.
The charges of unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, officials stated.
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