Washington – Suspected Pentagon leaker and former Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was indicted by a federal grand jury in Massachusetts on Thursday on six counts of withholding and knowingly transmitting national defense information.
Investigators said in court documents that Teixeira, 21, used his position as a systems administrator in the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing to obtain and then illegally disseminate military information classified to members of an online messaging platform. As of July 2021, Teixeira had a TOP SECRET/SCI security clearance, according to the indictment, and received training on the proper handling of classified information.
Teixeira was arrested in April and charged by criminal complaint after dozens of classified documents, including many reviewed by CBS News — were discovered in a Discord group, an invite-only forum where members can post anonymously. These records were later widely shared online.
Teixeira pleaded not guilty to the charges in the criminal complaint earlier this year, but has yet to be arraigned on the newly revealed charge.
The indictment revealed that he allegedly withheld and transmitted documents classified as information “about the engagement of a foreign adversary” that was marked top secret, material related to the supply of equipment to Ukraine and “a government document that discussed a plot by a foreign adversary to target U.S. forces abroad.” This document allegedly contained specific information about where and how the attack on US forces would occur.
Prosecutors say that in some cases, Teixeira transcribed the information he leaked, and in others, he published photographs of the documents.
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In arguing for Teixeira’s pretrial detention in April, prosecutors alleged in court documents that Teixeira sent more than 40,000 messages on Discord between Nov. 1, 2022, and April 7, 2023, some of which contained sensitive government records. It allegedly began accessing the classified information in February 2022 and later posted the information online.
Investigators said Teixeira acknowledged on several occasions in Discord messages that he had posted classified material and had even asked other members to specify which countries or subject areas they were most interested in.
In November, a member of the group asked him, “This is not classified,” referring to the information Teixeira had posted on the forum. Teixeira allegedly replied, “Everything I’ve told you so far has been … this is no different,” court documents revealed. The following month, investigators allege, he wrote of the confidential information he obtained from the work: “I tailor it and take important parts and include as much detail as possible.”
Investigators also captured conversations showing Teixeira instructing other members of the Discord group in April to “delete all messages,” alleging that he took a series of steps to obstruct the investigation into the leaked Pentagon records .
“[i]If someone comes looking, don’t call them shit,” one user is accused of writing.
Prosecutors revealed earlier this year that Teixeira was suspended from high school in 2018 after a classmate overheard him talking about guns and Molotov cocktails. He joined the Air National Guard in September 2019 and worked as a “cyber transportation systems officer,” according to Pentagon records.
The violent rhetoric continued after Teixeira began military service, prosecutors said, alleging that during that period, he posted that if he got his way, he would “kill a [expletive] ton of people” because it would be “weeding out the weak minded”.
Court documents said that in February, he told a Discord user that he was tempted to turn a type of minivan into a “murder van.”
In previous court filings, Teixeira’s legal team called the government’s allegations “hyperbolic” and blamed other Discord chat members for the widespread release of the documents.
“The government’s allegations in its filings on the evening of April 26, 2023 provide no support that Mr. Teixeira currently, or ever, intended any information allegedly on the private social media server to be widely disseminated.” , his public defender wrote.
Teixeira has since obtained another attorney, Michael Bachrach, who declined to comment.
A Massachusetts magistrate judge ordered his arrest last month.
