Teixeira pleads guilty in data leak
Deal calls for at least 11 years in prison
Jack D. Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking vast amounts of classified information in an internet chat group, pleaded guilty Monday to all charges he faced after striking a deal with prosecutors that calls for a sentence of at least 11 years in prison, but less than 17 years.
Teixeira, 22, of Dighton, pleaded guilty in federal court in Boston to six counts of willful retention and transmission of Department of Defense information in violation of the Espionage Act. He agreed to participate in a debriefing with military and government officials, and provide any government documents that may be in his possession or control, according to a plea agreement filed in court Monday.
US District Judge Indira Talwani scheduled sentencing for Sept. 27.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend 16 years and eight months in prison for Teixeira, while the defense will recommend 11 years, according to the plea agreement. The judge will decide what sentence to impose. Teixeira will get credit for the time he has been held without bail since his arrest last April, as well as earned good time, meaning he could be a free man when he’s 30 or 35 — depending on which recommendation the judge adopts.
It’s unclear whether the military will seek to impose an additional penalty against Teixeira. A Defense official said Monday that Teixeira remains in unpaid active military status, meaning he could still face a military judicial process once his case in the civilian federal courts concludes. The official said any additional military legal action will fall under the purview of the Air Force.
During his appearance in federal court Monday, Teixeira acknowledged that while working as a cyberdefense operations journeyman assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, he posted hundreds of documents containing classified military information about the Ukraine war and other sensitive intelligence matters on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers. He admitted that he knew the information could cause damage to the national security of the United States and provide an advantage to foreign adversar
ies.
“Are you in fact guilty of the facts charged?” Talwani asked Teixeira.
“Yes, your honor,” he said. Teixeira has been held at the Plymouth county jail since his arrest and appeared in an orange jail-issued uniform with black rosary beads around his neck. As he was led away in handcuffs and shackles, he smiled and nodded to his father, mother, and stepfather, who were seated in the spectator section.
After the hearing, a lawyer for Teixeira, Michael K. Bachrach, described his client as “very much a kid” whose “youth played such a significant role in his conduct.”
“We believe there is going to be substantial mitigation that we’re going to be able to establish as to why a sentence of no more than 11 years is, in fact, the just and reasonable sentence in this case,” Bachrach said.
Teixeira “absolutely” grasps the gravity of his crimes, he said.
“He is significantly remorseful for his conduct,” Bachrach said. “He has accepted full responsibility for his conduct” and will address the court at sentencing.
Teixeira’s parents declined to comment after leaving the courthouse, but a spokesperson for the family released a statement on their behalf calling it “unfathomable to think your child would ever be involved in something so serious, but he has taken responsibility for his part in this, and here we are.”
The statement read, “Our focus now remains on Jack — his protection, health, and well-being, and taking care of whatever is in his best interest. Beyond anything, Jack is a beloved son, brother, nephew, and friend. But above all, Jack is a good person.”
During a press conference on Monday, Matthew Olsen, US Assistant Attorney General for national security, said Teixeira “callously disregarded the national secretary of the United States and he betrayed his solemn oath to defend the country and the trust of the American people that he swore to protect.”
Massachusetts Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy said Teixeira “exploited his position of trust” by posting “some of our nation’s most guarded secrets” online and will spend many years behind bars for his crimes.
Levy declined to speculate on Teixeira’s motive, but said he “didn’t care at all about the consequences. He was really acting for himself.”
Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston field office, said people typically think of adversarial nations like Russia, Iran, and China when considering national security threats.
“You wouldn’t think a 21year-old National Air Guardsman who took an oath to defend our country and the Constitution would make the list,” Cohen said. “But today Jack Teixeira admitted to endangering our national security and betraying our country.”
An FBI affidavit filed in court last year alleged that Teixeira had also researched information about mass shootings in military databases and spoke on Discord about killing people.
In court Monday, Assistant US Attorney Jason Casey told the judge that if the case went to trial, prosecutors would prove that from January 2022 until April 2023, Teixeira conducted hundreds of searches of intelligence databases that weren’t related to his job and purposely copied classified information without approval and posted it on Discord. In some instances, Teixeira posted images of the documents, and other times he took notes from documents and later posted that information, Casey said.
Teixeira continued to access information that was unrelated to his duties “even after he was admonished by his superiors on two separate occasions not to take notes or conduct deep dives for information,” Casey said.
In January 2023, Teixeira accessed information from a secure work station about equipment being sent to Ukraine, as well as how equipment would be transferred and used upon receipt, Casey said.
Teixeira’s case captured global attention and fueled intense criticism of the Defense Department’s decision to grant Teixeira a high-level security clearance and its failure to detect his online activities for months as he posted classified information, researched mass shootings, and spoke of killing people.
The Air Force inspector general issued a report in December concluding that there was a lack of supervision of Teixeira, and a number of officials failed to take required action after becoming aware of his suspicious behavior. As a result, 15 personnel were disciplined last year, according to the report.