Gitmo lawyer hired in leaker case
Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who’s accused of leaking top secret military documents, has a new attorney who represented a Guantanamo Bay detainee.
Attorney Michael Bachrach, who is based in Manhattan, has been appointed as a lawyer for the 21-year-old federally detained Dighton man.
“Mr. Bachrach’s notable cases include: winning 284 counts of acquittal for Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, the first and thus far only Guantanamo Bay detainee to be transferred to civilian custody for trial,” reads the attorney’s website.
“Ghailani was found guilty of only one count of a 308-count indictment charging him with the bombings of the United States embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,” the website states. “Along the way, Mr. Bachrach and his co-counsel won major victories requiring preclusion of evidence obtained as a result of the torture of their client, as well as requiring the United States government to disclose evidence well beyond what had ever been provided before.”
Teixeira, while he was assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, is accused of leaking national defense classified information.
The Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges in a criminal complaint that Teixeira used his top secret security clearance as an Air National Guardsman to access and publish information about the Russia-Ukraine conflict and other sensitive matters. He’s being charged under the Espionage Act.
Recently, a U.S. magistrate judge ruled that Teixeira should remain detained.
“I find that the United States has proved by a preponderance of the evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably address the serious risk of flight and obstruction of justice posed by Defendant’s release on conditions,” wrote Judge David Hennessy.
Following that ruling, Teixeira tried to boost his court-appointed representation with a private attorney under the Criminal Justice Act (CJA).
“In order to ‘provide high-quality representation consistent with the best practices of the legal profession and commensurate with those services rendered when counsel is privately retained,’ additional appointment of CJA counsel is necessary here because of the complexity and nature of this prosecution and the nature of the evidence and procedures involved,” Teixeira’s federal public defender wrote.
Bachrach serves on the CJA panel for the Southern District of New York and is a member of the CJA Capital Panel for the Southern District of New York, the CJA Capital Panel for the Eastern District of New York, and the CJA Terrorism Panel for the Eastern District of New York.
Bachrach did not immediately respond to comment on Monday.