Judge to rule on accused Pentagon leaker's detention at later date
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Accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira will have to wait to hear whether he will be detained before his trial — Magistrate Judge David Hennessy said after the nearly 90-minute detention hearing Thursday that he would issue his ruling at a later date. However, he was openly skeptical of the defense team's argument and pretrial services report recommending supervised release for Teixeira.
Teixeira, wearing an orange jumpsuit, entered the courtroom and smiled and nodded toward his father and stepfather.
Prosecutors argued that Teixeira should be detained before his trial, based on the government's conclusion that if released, he would take steps to flee his home in Massachusetts, perhaps to a country hostile to the U.S. or would continue to obstruct the investigation. They described him as liking to be the gatekeeper of things others didn't have and referred to him as a one-stop shop for information. They showed documents that he signed for sensitive compartmented information, a type of information from sensitive intelligence sources.
The government told Hennessy that Teixeira had done hundreds of searches on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. And prosecutors also pointed out searches related to mass shootings — "Ruby Ridge," "Mandalay Bay," "Las Vegas shooting," "Buffalo Tops shooting" and "Uvalde shooting" — none of which were related to his job at Otis Air Base.
Teixeira's lawyers argued that the charges he faces are non-violent and that he did not pose a risk of flight and that he was entitled to pretrial release under the Bail Reform Act. They also dismissed the Justice Department's argument that a foreign government might help Teixeira flee the U.S. as an "imaginary idea."
Hennessy responded to the defense lawyer by asking if he disagreed that given the fact Teixeira has had access to top secret and sensitive information that foreign governments might have interest in what he could say. He characterized the information about Ukraine and Russia as quite relevant.
The judge also expressed doubt about the defense's argument that Teixeira had no idea that putting something on the internet would enable it to spread beyond his server, saying that he found it "incredible" that the defendant could not foresee that possibility.
On the eve of the hearing, the Justice Department argued that Teixeira should remain in detention before he is tried on charges related to his alleged unlawful retention and transmission of national defense and classified documents.
In a detention memo filed with the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, prosecutors presented several reasons the 21-year-old member of the Air National Guard should not be released to the custody of his father before his trial.
The Justice Department memo, written by prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Massachusetts, noted that Teixeira faces 25 year in prison and "potentially far more," hinting that he may eventually face more charges. The lengthy potential maximum sentence could make him a significant flight risk, prosecutors argue, and the value of the information he obtained — as well as his low current net worth of about $19,000 — could make him vulnerable to offers from countries unfriendly to the U.S.
"He accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States," the memo said.
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Prosecutors warned that if released, Teixeira could pose an even greater threat now that his identity is known: "Those same adversaries have every incentive to contact the Defendant, to seek additional information he may have physical access to or knowledge of, and to provide him with the means to help him flee the country in return for that information."
Teixeira's public defenders responded to the government's filing Thursday morning and urged the court to release him on bail, arguing the Justice Department's memo includes "hyperbolic judgements and provides little more than speculation that a foreign adversary will seduce Mr. Teixeira and orchestrate his clandestine escape from the United States." The defense said the argument for his detention is "illusory" and highlighted his lack of a criminal history.
In the government's memo, prosecutors said investigators found evidence that Teixeira attempted to thwart the investigation into his alleged leaks. The filing includes samples of some of the more than 40,000 messages they said Teixeira sent on the messaging platform Discord — many about the allegedly leaked documents.
In March, he offered information to users in his group on Discord, according to a chat found by investigators and included in the government's filing.
Investigators also captured conversations that showed Teixeira instructing others in the Discord group to "delete all messages."
"[i]f anyone comes looking, don't tell them sh**," he allegedly wrote to one user. And he told another, "Try to delete all my messages in civil discussions." He came up with one plan to have a Discord user invite him to a chat and then ban Teixeira and use the "option to delete all my messages." The user informed him, "it only goes to past 7 days." Teixeira responded with a profanity.
When investigators arrived at his mother's home earlier this month, they found a tablet, laptop and Xbox smashed in his trash, the filing said. The FBI also found a gun locker where multiple weapons, including handguns, rifles, shotguns and high-capacity weapons were stored "two feet" from his bed, the filing said.
The filing revealed that Teixeira was suspended from high school in 2018 after a classmate heard him talking about weapons and Molotov cocktails. He claimed they were references to a video game, but when he applied for a firearms identification that same year, he was rejected because of those remarks. He applied again in 2019 and was again denied the permit. In 2020, he argued that the position of trust he held with the U.S. government qualified him to possess a gun.
Teixeira also allegedly posted violent rhetoric online. The detention memo notes that last November, he wrote that if he had his way, he would "kill a [expletive] ton of people" because it would be "culling the weak minded."
Earlier this year, in February, he allegedly told a user that he was tempted to make a type of minivan into an "assassination van."
In July 2022, using his government computer, investigators said he searched numerous terms associated with mass shootings, including "uvalde."
According to the government's memo, beginning in February 2022, Teixeira had access to "hundreds of classified documents containing national defense information that had no bearing on his role as essentially an information technology ("IT") support specialist."
In the Discord group, investigators said, he acknowledged on multiple occasions that he posted classified material and even asked other members what they wanted him to post.
In March, he allegedly told the group he would no longer share classified materials and in April, he reemerged with a different username, encouraging others to delete messages.
The filing also contains numerous agreements Teixeira signed about his job at the Air National Guard, FBI affidavits and pictures of his room.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Air Force said it had temporarily suspended two leaders of the unit where Teixeira worked.
His defense attorneys argued there are multiple remedies outside of detention that would ensure Teixeira doesn't flee or tamper with witnesses or evidence, including location monitoring, restricting his access to internet and a $20,000 bond.
"The government's allegations in its filings on the evening of April 26, 2023, offer no support that Mr. Teixeira currently, or ever, intended any information purportedly to the private social media server to be widely disseminated," they argue, blaming another user in the Discord group for spreading in the information. "Thus, its argument that Mr. Teixeira will continue to release information or destroy evidence if not detained rings hollow."
Teixeira, his attorneys argued, no longer has access to any classified records and does not pose a flight risk as a lifelong Massachusetts resident.
"Mr. Teixeira is entitled to the presumption of innocence and that presumption should not be disturbed lightly," they said.
Eugene Ansley contributed to this report.
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