WASHINGTON (AP / BOSTON 25) – A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who has become the primary person of interest in the disclosure of highly classified military documents was arrested Thursday by federal agents, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced.
Investigators believe the guard, who specializes in intelligence, ran the online chat group where the documents were uploaded. Garland identified the guard as Jack Teixeira, 21, and said he would be charged with the unauthorized removal of classified national defense information.
FBI agents converged on Teixeira’s Massachusetts home on Thursday, and heavily armed tactical agents arrested Teixeira, who was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, outside the property “without incident,” Garland said.
He will have an initial appearance in federal court in Massachusetts, Garland said.
It was not immediately known if Teixeira had an attorney who could speak on his behalf, and a phone message left at a number believed to belong to his mother was not immediately returned.
Law enforcement cordoned off the street near the house. The New York Times, which identified Teixeira for the first time on Thursday, said a man who had been outside Teixeira’s home earlier said he “needs to get a lawyer if things go the way they’re going right now . The feds will be soon, I’m sure.”
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey said Teixeira’s arrest is deeply troubling.
“It’s an incredibly shocking revelation. We’re continuing to hear back. We’re working closely with federal authorities on this, and we’re certainly going to do everything we can to help,” Healey told Boston 25.
Teixeira’s emergence as the apparent prime suspect is bound to raise questions about how the most high-profile intelligence leak in years, one that continues to unfold with near-daily revelations of highly classified documents, could have been caused by such a young and low ranking service member.
The Biden administration has struggled for days to contain the fallout from the leaks, which have made public potential vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and exposed private assessments of allies on a range of matters of intelligence
The National Guard did not confirm his identity, but said in a statement that: “We are aware of the investigation into the alleged role that a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman may have played in the recent leak of highly classified documents.”
Air Force Brigade. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, referred all questions about the case to the Justice Department. But he said: “We have rules in place. Each of us signs a confidentiality agreement. This is a criminal act, a deliberate violation of those.”
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The Biden administration has been working to assess the diplomatic and national security consequences of the leaked documents since they were first reported last week. A Pentagon spokesman told reporters earlier this week that the revelations pose a “very serious risk to national security,” and the Justice Department opened an investigation to identify the person responsible.
“We’re getting closer,” President Joe Biden told reporters in Ireland on Thursday. He said that while he was concerned that sensitive government documents had been leaked, “there is nothing contemporary that I know of that has any major consequences.”
The Justice Department declined to comment Thursday.
Leakage is possible may have started on a site called Discord, a social networking platform popular with people who play online games. The Discord site hosts real-time voice, video and text chats for groups and describes itself as a place “where you can belong to a school club, a gaming group or a global art community”.
In one such forum, originally created to discuss various topics, members were debating the war in Ukraine. According to a chat member, an unidentified poster was sharing documents that the poster claimed were classified, first writing them with the poster’s own thoughts and then, for several months, uploading images of folded papers.
Discord has said it was cooperating with law enforcement.
There are only a few ways that the classified information that was leaked could have been accessed, which may provide critical clues as to who is responsible. Typically in classified briefings, as with slides that were posted on Discord, information is shared electronically.
This is done through secure computer terminals where users log in based on their credentials or through tablets that are distributed for briefings and collected afterwards. If the slides are to be printed, they can only be sent to secure printers that can handle classified documents and keep a digital record of everyone who has requested a print.
It’s these digital clues like the printout log that can help investigators dig deeper into who took the documents. In most photographs of documents posted online, the images are of paper copies that appear to be folded into quarters, almost as if they’ve been slipped into someone’s pocket.
In the days since the leaks came to light, the Pentagon has deferred questions about the probe to the Justice Department, saying it is a criminal matter. Even if the person who leaked the files is an active-duty member of the US military, the Justice Department would likely still have the lead on the prosecution until it was willing to hand the matter over to the Defense Department , a defense official told the AP. with the condition of anonymity to deal with sensitive issues.
This has been the case in previous criminal cases, such as when there were two Marines based at Camp Pendleton in California arrested for drug trafficking in 2020, the official said. If the person responsible turns out to be a civilian, the Justice Department will be held responsible, the official said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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