Mass. Air National Guardsman indicted on 6 counts in Pentagon leak scandal

A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused in the leak of highly classified military documents was indicted by a federal grand jury Thursday for his role in distributing the information.

21-year-old Jack Teixeira was indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.

Teixeira allegedly accessed the classified information while working at Otis Air Force Base and then put it up on the social media platform Discord. The six charges he faces each carry a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a $250, 000 fine.

“The unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified information jeopardizes our nation’s security. Individuals granted access to classified materials have a fundamental duty to safeguard the information for the safety of the United States, our active service members, its citizens and its allies,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “We are committed to ensuring that those entrusted with sensitive national security information adhere to the law.”

According to the charging documents, Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in September 2019 and has held a Top-Secret security clearance since 2021.

Teixeira was arrested after FBI agents converged on his North Dighton home in April.

In May, a federal magistrate judge ruled that Teixeira must stay behind bars as he awaits trial. Prosecutors revealed in court papers filed in May that Teixeira’s superiors had raised concerns in the months before his arrest about his mishandling of classified information. He was twice admonished by superiors in September and October, and was again observed in February viewing information “that was not related to his primary duty and was related to the intelligence field,” according to internal Air National Guard memos filed in court.

Guardsman Jack Teixeira, Pentagon leak suspect, to remain jailed as he awaits trial

Investigators believe Teixeira was the leader of an online private chat group on Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games and where Teixeira is believed to have posted for years about guns, games and his favorite memes.

An eight-page court affidavit from April detailed several steps in the FBI investigation, including an interview with a Discord user familiar with Teixeira’s online posts. The document did not identify the person or say how he or she was located. But the source told the FBI that a username linked to Teixeira began posting what appeared to be classified information roughly in December in an online chat that the user said was meant for the discussion of geopolitical affairs and past and current wars.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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