Alleged Pentagon documents leaker Jack Teixeira indicted
- Jack Teixeira has been indicted on charges he stole classified documents
- The Air National Guard member was arrested earlier this year
- Photos of the documents were allegedly posted online
(NewsNation) — The Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of stealing and releasing classified documents online has been officially indicted by a grand jury.
Jack Teixeira, 21, faces six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information, according to the Justice Department. He was arrested earlier this year after classified documents, some of which were about the war in Ukraine, were leaked on Discord, a social media messaging app.
The indictment alleges Teixeira took classified documents beginning no earlier than January 2022 through April 2023. Prosecutors say he took information from his workstation at Otis Air National Guard Base, transcribed it and then shared it with other Discord users.
He also took photos of the documents and posted them on Discord, the indictment alleges. Photos of documents surfaced online earlier this year, prompting a Justice Department investigation.
The six documents described in the indictment include information about:
- The compromise by a foreign adversary of certain accounts belonging to a U.S. company.
- The provision of equipment of Ukraine, how it would be transferred and how it would be used.
- Troop movements in Ukraine.
- A plot by a foreign adversary to target United States forces abroad.
- Western deliveries of supplies to Ukraine.
- A shift in foreign and economic policy of a foreign government and actions that country took in an effort to repair its relationship with the U.S., to the perceived detriment of a separate foreign country.
Teixeira is being held in jail while he awaits trial. At a detention hearing last month, prosecutors said he posed a flight risk and could possibly receive help from a foreign adversary to escape the country. They also said he smashed electronics — which were recovered form a dumpster near his parents’ home — in an attempt to destroy evidence.
Lawyers for Teixeira had argued he should be released, saying he posed no danger to the community and was not a flight risk. They described his father’s home, where he was arrested, as “specially equipped” to serve as a residence, because it has Ring doorbell cameras on all doors and an indoor camera system he could use to monitor his son even while he was at work.
A judge sided with prosecutors and ordered him held without bail.
Teixeira faces up to 10 years in prison on each charge.