Air Guardsman Accused Of Leaking Classified Documents May Still Have Access To More — Prosecutors
Federal prosecutors said in court records unsealed late Wednesday that the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified materials poses an ongoing threat to national security because he “may still have access to a trove of classified information” that would be desirable to hostile countries.
Prosecutors will ask a judge on Thursday to keep Jack Teixeira, 21, behind bars, claiming he poses a “serious flight risk” and that a “foreign adversary” may try to help him flee the United States and provide him with safe haven.
“The information to which the Defendant had access — and did access — far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed on the Internet to date,” the document said. The leaks “have the capacity to cause additional exceptionally grave damage to the U.S. national security if disclosed.”
According to the 18-page memo, Teixeira had a history of making violent and racist remarks, including posting on social media about wanting to carry out a mass shooting, keeping “an arsenal of weapons” and tactical gear at his house, and apparently attempting to thwart federal investigators by destroying evidence.
Teixeira had “detailed and troubling discussions about violence and murder,” including social media posts about wanting to carry out a killing in a public place. He told another user that he planned to convert a vehicle into an “assassination van,” while in another chat he stated he wanted to “kill a [expletive] ton of people” as a manner of “culling the weak minded,” according to the memo.
It added that Teixeira also used his government computer to look for information on prior mass shootings, including the “Uvalde” and “Mandalay Bay shootings.”
The filing comes ahead of a detention hearing in federal court in Massachusetts on Thursday. Teixeira, who has not entered a plea, has been held in jail since his arrest earlier this month in connection with one of the most major intelligence breaches in recent years. The saga has sparked global outrage and cast doubt on America’s capacity to keep its secrets safe.
Teixeira has been accused with possessing secret national security documents and national defense material. The charges could result in a 25-year prison sentence “and potentially far more,” according to the court document.
“The damage the Defendant has already caused to the U.S. national security is immense. The damage the Defendant is still capable of causing is extraordinary,” prosecutors wrote. “If the Defendant were released, it would be all too easy for him to further disseminate classified information and would create the unacceptable risk that he would flee the United States and take refuge with a foreign adversary to avoid the reach of U.S. law.”
Teixeira, an airman first class, was assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts when he was arrested on April 13.
He is alleged to have used the online forum Discord to share the leaked information with his small community of online friends, and to have taken photos of paper documents that he may have smuggled out of a secure facility. He was granted top-secret security clearance in 2021.
They expose specifics of the United States’ espionage on Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, as well as secret assessments of Ukraine’s fighting capabilities, as well as intelligence on America’s allies, including South Korea and Israel.
The incident has prompted politicians in Washington to examine who has access to confidential data and what precautions are in place.
Prosecutors claimed Teixeira resides in his mother and stepfather’s residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, and has a weapons locker in his bedroom packed with handguns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, and an AK-style high-capacity weapon.
According to the filing, his “arsenal of weapons” included a bazooka and a “silencer-style accessory,” and investigators discovered a tactical helmet with a GoPro camera and mount in the dumpster outside.
Special agents also discovered a smashed laptop, tablet, and Xbox game system in the garbage, which “appeared calculated to delay or prevent the government from gaining a full understanding of the seriousness and scale of his conduct,” according to the complaint. Teixeira also messaged others on social media, telling them to “delete all messages” and that if “anyone comes looking, don’t tell them shit,” it said.
Last week, a court allowed the defendant’s defense team’s request to postpone the hearing so they could answer the prosecutors’ case.
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