Jack Teixeira expected to plead guilty in leaked Pentagon documents case
Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts air national guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, is expected to plead guilty in his federal case, according to court papers filed on Thursday.
Prosecutors asked the judge to schedule a change of plea hearing for Monday, but no other details were immediately available. Teixeira had previously pleaded not guilty.
The Massachusetts US attorney’s office declined further comment. An attorney for Teixeira did not immediately return a phone message on Thursday.
Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, has been behind bars since his April arrest over a leak that left the Biden administration scrambling to assess and contain the damage among the international community and reassure allies that its secrets were safe with the US.
Teixeira was indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.
Last year, Teixeira was accused of leaking highly classified military documents, including revelations on Ukraine’s air defenses, South Korea and its ammunition concerns and Israel’s
Mossad intelligence agency, as well as Chinese interests in Nicaragua and a Russian Arctic struggle.
The leak is believed to have started on Discord, a popular social media platform among the gaming community. Teixeira was allegedly part of a Discord chat group called Thug Shaker Central and allegedly shared the documents to impress group members, which consisted of 20 to 30 young men and teenagers who posted about guns and video games and shared racist memes.
According to federal prosecutors, Teixeira bragged about the extent of information he had access to, saying that the documents he allegedly shared was “less than half of what’s available”.
“All the shit I’ve told you guys I’m not supposed to,” Teixeira allegedly said, according to federal prosecutors.
Teixeira was in the 102nd intelligence wing of the Massachusetts air national guard and had the duty title “cyber transport systems journeyman”, which involved maintaining functional internet at the airbases.
Last April, Teixeira, who was 21 years old at the time, was arrested by FBI agents in North Dighton, Massachusetts. Following his arrest, the US attorney general, Merrick Garland, said: “This is not just about taking home documents … This is about … both the unlawful retention and transmission of the documents … There are very serious penalties associated with that.”
The leak is considered to be one of the most serious breaches of US national security since the 2010 Wikileaks that involved the publication of more than 700,000 classified documents. At the time of Teixeira’s not-guilty plea last June, Teixeira’s family said that they “remain committed as ever” to supporting him.
Following the leak and Teixeira’s arrest, the US air force removed Sean Riley, the commander of Teixeira’s unit, last December and reprimanded 14 others including enlisted members and officers with the air national guard with disciplinary and other administrative actions.
“Every [military member] is entrusted with the solemn duty to safeguard our nation’s classified defense information,” the air force secretary Frank Kendall said at the time.
“When there is a breach of that sacred trust, for any reason, we will act in accordance with our laws and policies to hold responsible individuals accountable,” he added.