Jack Teixeira, Pentagon leaks suspect, indicted by federal grand jury
Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old US airman accused of leaking confidential intelligence and defense documents online has been indicted by a federal grand jury, the Department of Justice said on Thursday.
Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, has been charged with six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense, the justice department said.
US district court magistrate judge David Hennessy granted the government’s motion for detention on 19 May, the justice department added in the press statement.
Attorney general Merrick Garland said: “As laid out in the indictment, Jack Teixeira was entrusted by the United States government with access to classified national defense information – including information that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared.”
He added: “Teixeira is charged with sharing information with users on a social media platform he knew were not entitled to receive it. In doing so, he is alleged to have violated US law and endangered our national security.”
Teixeira, who currently remains in federal custody, was arrested by armed FBI agents at his family home in April this year. He had enlisted in the US Air National Guard in September 2019 and held a top secret security clearance since 2021.
According to federal prosecutors, Teixeira is accused of willfully, improperly, and unlawfully retaining and transmitting national defense information beginning in or around January 2022. The files in question were classified as “top secret” or “secret”, according to charging documents.
The leak is believed to have started on Discord, a social media platform popular among the online gaming community. Teixeira is believed to have been a leader of a Discord group chat called Thug Shaker Central. The chat includes 20 to 30 young men and teenagers who frequently post about guns, games and racist memes.
In April, Teixeira was charged with two separate counts under the Espionage Act.
One of the counts is unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information which “could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation”.
The other count is the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material.
Each charge of unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information provides for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000, the justice department said.