Hearing postponed for Guardsman charged with leaks
Defense seeks delay on issue of detention
A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman charged with violating the Espionage Act by allegedly leaking dozens of classified military documents online appeared briefly Wednesday in Boston’s federal courthouse, where a judge granted a defense request to postpone a hearing to determine if he should remain in custody while awaiting trial.
Jack D. Teixeira, 21, of Dighton, entered the courtroom handcuffed and in shackles wearing black rosary beads and an orange jumpsuit. He glanced back at his father, seated in the front row of the spectator section. He has been in custody since his arrest last week.
A detention hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday on the government’s request to have him held without bail while the case is pending, but his lawyer sought a two-week postponement in a motion filed shortly before the hearing was scheduled to begin.
“The defense requires more time to address the issues presented by the government’s request for detention,” assistant federal public defender Brendan Kelley, who represents Teixeira, wrote in the motion seeking the delay.
US Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy approved the motion. A new date for that hearing has yet to be set, but an entry on the court docket shows that it will be held at the federal courthouse in Worcester, where Hennessy often sits.
Teixeira is accused of removing top secret documents from Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod while assigned to the 102nd intelligence wing and sharing them on a private channel on Discord, a messaging platform popular with video game enthusiasts, from December through March. The massive breach went undetected for months until the documents were shared with millions of people across the Internet, according to authorities.
Shortly before Teixeira’s court appearance, his lawyer also filed a waiver of a separate preliminary hearing in the case.
During the brief hearing Wednesday, Hennessy asked Teixeira to stand and questioned him about whether he understood that he had a right to a preliminary hearing about whether the government had probable cause to bring the charges and had voluntarily signed the waiver.
“Is anybody threatening you or promising you anything to get you to waive your right to a preliminary hearing?” Hennessy asked.
“No, your honor,” Teixeira said.
The hearing lasted about five minutes and Teixeira was escorted from the courtroom.
His lawyer declined to comment on the case, and his father also declined to comment outside the courthouse.
Prosecutors allege that Teixeira leaked documents that contained top secret information about the war in Ukraine, troop movements, and other sensitive information, and that leaking them could cause “exceptionally grave damage to the national security” of the United States.
He is charged with retaining and transmitting national defense information without authorization; and removal and retention of classified documents without authorization.
The case has triggered an inquiry into why Teixeira was given access to documents related to the war in Ukraine and US assessments of foreign leaders. On Tuesday, the US Air Force said it has stripped Teixeira’s unit of its intelligence mission and is reassessing the Air Force’s security procedures and access to classified information.
Teixeira enlisted in September 2019 and was elevated in May 2022 to the rank of E-3 airman first class. In February, he was given the job title of cyber defense operations journeyman. He has held top secret security clearance and “sensitive compartmental access” to other highly classified programs since 2021, according to an FBI affidavit filed in court.
With the elevated clearance, he was required to sign “a lifetime, binding non-disclosure agreement,” acknowledging that the unauthorized disclosure of protected information could result in criminal charges, according to the affidavit.
B. Stephanie Siegmann, a former national security chief at the US attorney’s office in Boston, expressed incredulity about the scope of information Teixeira was allegedly able to access.
“Why does he have a need to know this information about the Ukraine and Russian conflict, as well as surveillance of foreign governments?” Siegmann said. “We have classified sources overseas who could get killed because their information is outed.”
As the case moves forward, one issue facing the government is that any documents used as part of the case will have to be shown to jurors and defense attorneys, Siegmann said.
“Do you want to pick documents or materials that are so sensitive that you wouldn’t want a jury to see it?” she said. Even if hundreds of documents were allegedly leaked, Siegmann said prosecutors don’t need to offer all of them while presenting their case.