National Guardsman
prosecutors wrote.
The Justice Department’s filing outlines a pattern of troubling behavior that officials say began well before he entered the military and continued in recent months, even as his position afforded him access to government secrets. In 2018, prosecutors allege, Teixeira was suspended after a classmate “overheard him make remarks about weapons, including Molotov cocktails, guns at the school, and racial threats.” His initial application for a firearms identification card that same year was denied due to police department concerns over those remarks.
He applied again over the next two years, and cited in his 2020 application after joining the Guard “his position of trust in the United States government as a reason he could be trusted to possess a firearm,” prosecutors wrote.
The Justice Department said that it has also learned through its investigation that Teixeira in July used his government computer to look up a series of U.S. mass shootings and government standoffs, including the terms “Ruby Ridge,” “Las Vegas shooting,” “Mandalay Bay shooting,” “Uvalde” and “Buffalo tops shooting” — an apparent reference to the 2022 racist mass shooting at a Buffalo supermarket.
The searches of mass shootings on a government computer should have triggered the computer to generate an immediate referral to security, which could have then led to a more in-depth review of Teixeira’s file, according to Dan Meyer, a lawyer who specializes in military, federal employment and security clearance issues.
The Air Force’s investigation will probably discover whether a referral was generated — and whether security officers did anything with the information. Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder declined to discuss the specifics of Teixeira’s case. “We do want to allow the investigation to run its course to get the facts,” Ryder said.
He told a press briefing that when people using Defense Department computers or phones try to access sites they shouldn’t, they get a banner alert and notifications go to their supervisors or security officers. “You are subject to monitoring,” Ryder said. Teixeira’s lawyers said he has no criminal history and would have no access to guns if he were released.
The incident at his high school was “thoroughly investigated” and he was allowed to come back after a few days and a psychological evaluation, they wrote.
That investigation was “fully known and vetted ” by the Air National Guard before he enlisted and when he obtained his top secret security clearance, they said.
Months later, after news outlets began reporting on the documents leak, Teixeira took steps to destroy evidence after news outlets began reporting on it. Authorities who searched a dumpster at his home found a smashed laptop, tablet and Xbox gaming console, they said.
Authorities have not alleged a motive. Members of the Discord group have described Teixeira as someone looking to show off, rather than being motivated by a desire to inform the public about U.S. military operations or to influence American policy.
Billing records the FBI obtained from Discord were among the things that led authorities to Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in September 2019. A Discord user told the FBI that a username linked to Teixeira began posting what appeared to be classified information roughly in December.
Teixeira was detected on April 6 — the day The New York Times first published a story about the breach of documents — searching for the word “leak” in a classified system, according to court papers. The FBI says that was reason to believe Teixeira was trying to find information about the investigation into who was responsible for the leaks.