Global Courant 2023-05-20 01:43:08
The 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, charged in connection with the investigation into leaked documents, has been ordered to be detained ahead of his trial.
In a continued hearing in federal court on Friday afternoon, the federal magistrate rejected Jack Teixeira’s request for parole, saying the alleged leaker was responsible for a “profound violation” that compromised “a list as long as a phone book.”
The judge, David Hennessy, first heard arguments last month over whether Teixeira should be held in federal custody ahead of his trial, but said he needed more time to assess before making a decision.
An undated photo shows Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Air National Guard who was arrested by the FBI for his alleged involvement in leaking classified documents online, posing for a selfie at an unknown location.
Social media website via Reuters
Prosecutors have argued that Teixeira is both a runaway and a risk to national security and that if released on bail he could “further disseminate classified information” and “seek refuge from a foreign adversary”.
Teixeira’s public defender, meanwhile, has argued that the airman should be allowed to remain on remand under the care of his father or be locked up in a house with the presence of his father, mother, stepfather, air force personnel or his lawyers. Teixeira’s father testified at the April 27 hearing that he was willing to serve as a third custodian pending his son’s release.
Despite objections from the defense, the judge said Friday that he took seriously federal prosecutors’ argument that if released, Teixeira could be lured by a US adversary into handing over sensitive information.
“I understand it smacks of a spy novel, but I honestly think the government has the better argument here,” Hennessy said. “Foreign countries know that this defendant was disloyal to the United States.”
Teixeira, a resident of Dighton, Massachusetts, was arrested in mid-April and has been charged with unauthorized retention and disclosure of national defense information, as well as deliberate retention of classified documents, which carry a combined maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. He has yet to file a plea.
The criminal indictment alleges that Teixeira “kept and passed on inappropriate and unlawful national defense information to people who are not authorized to receive it.”
The leaked documents apparently contain top secret information about Russia’s war in Ukraine and other parts of the world. According to the indictment, Teixeira viewed a government document on February 23 and posted it online the following day. It is the disclosure of that single document that forms the basis of the initial charge.
He appeared in court on Friday in Worcester, Massachusetts, handcuffed and dressed in an orange smock with the initials of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility. He glanced at his father, mother, and stepfather who sat in the front row of the spectator’s gallery.
Jack Douglas Teixeira, a U.S. Air Force National Guard pilot accused of leaking top-secret military intelligence data online, will first appear before a Boston federal judge in a courtroom sketch on April 14, 2023.
Margaret Small/Reuters
Hennessy heard no additional arguments on Friday before explaining his decision.
“I am going to grant the government’s motion for detention on any grounds,” Hennessy told the court. “What the record shows right now is a deep break.”
Prosecutors allege that Teixeira was given access to much more classified information than what was posted. They suggested at last month’s hearing that given his dodgy nature he was likely to run and compared him directly to Edward Snowden.
In a new lawsuit filed Wednesday that further advocated keeping the defendant behind bars until his trial, prosecutors said Teixeira was reprimanded twice last year by his superiors for “concerning actions” he took in relation to secret information.
Specifically, in September and October, Teixeira was told by superiors to “stop taking notes in any form on classified intelligence information” and to “cease all deep dives into classified intelligence information,” prosecutors wrote in the filing.
Not long after the warnings, Teixeira allegedly admitted online in December that he “violated a lot of (unauthorized disclosure) rules,” but “Idgaf what they say I may or may not share,” according to the prosecutors’ motion.
Teixeira’s conduct showed that “he will not be deterred by any restrictions this court may place on him and will not hesitate to circumvent those restrictions if he deems it in his best interest to do so,” prosecutors argued.
Teixeira’s defense team also filed a motion in support of his provisional release ahead of the hearing. His public attorney, Allen Franco, cited previous cases involving people charged with various crimes related to classified information and allowed parole prior to trial.
Franco also argued that the government has provided “no evidence” that his client had ever intended to “widely distribute” information shared online.
Hennessy said Friday that he rejected the defense’s argument that the weight of the evidence was unimportant.
“The nature and circumstances of the crime, in my view, strongly argue for detention in this case,” Hennessy said.
“Who did he endanger? You could make a list as long as a phone book,” the judge said.
It was shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine when Teixeira “began to see classified information that had nothing to do with his duties as an aviator,” the judge said.
The judge cited online chats in which a user asked Teixeira if the information he allegedly shared was classified.
“Everything I posted is secret,” the judge quoted Teixeira as saying.
When the user replied, “Then you really trust everyone,” the judge said Teixeira’s response was telling.
“His response was, ‘I have plausible deniability. No one knows who I am,'” the judge said.
Hennessy also cited the warnings Teixeira allegedly issued by his superiors at Joint Base Cape Cod, saying, “Suspect was confronted three times with access to classified information.”
The judge admitted that Teixeira “comes from a good family” and noted “his mother, father and stepfather have been with every procedure”. However, Hennessy said that Teixeira’s “fascination with guns” worried him.
“There seems to be an unhealthy component to it,” said the judge.
The defense painted a more docile picture of Teixeira reading the Bible prior to his arrest and surrendering peacefully.
“That’s a really good argument, but I think it looks at the record in isolation,” Hennessy said, noting that Teixeira reportedly destroyed his cell phone and other electronics and told a user in his chat group not to say anything if the authorities came to ask questions. .
Luke Barr, Morgan Winsor, Alexander Mallin, Jack Date, and Trevor Ault of ABC News contributed to this report.
