Global Courant 2023-04-14 22:23:33
BOSTON — Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who was arrested in connection with the leak of classified documents, feared federal authorities were on his trail days before his arrest, court documents showed Friday.
Judge David Hennessy told Teixeira at his first trial here Friday that he was charged with possession of classified documents related to national security and possession of national defense equipment.
The charges carry up to 10 years behind bars.
Teixeria “used his government computer to search classified intelligence reports for the word ‘leak'” on April 6, according to an FBI statement supporting his arrest.
The first media reports about the leak were published that day, the FBI said, meaning Teixeria was “seeking covert reporting on the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of the identity of the person who sent classified national defense information,” according to the affidavit.
Like Teixeira appeared in courtat least three family members present hugged and comforted each other after Teixeira, dressed in a tan prison jumpsuit, was led to the defense table by U.S. Marshals.
A family member appeared to say, “I love you,” while the defendant appeared to reply, “I love you too.” That reported NBC Boston.
Teixeira was not required to enter a plea during this initial trial on Friday. His next trial was scheduled for Wednesday.
After the brief hearing, Teixeira’s supporters left the courthouse with arms folded, but did not answer questions from reporters outside. A federal public defender, listed as Teixeira’s attorney, was not immediately available for comment Friday.
Teixeira was arrested Thursday afternoon at a home in North Dighton, Massachusetts. said federal officials.
Jack Teixeira was taken into custody Thursday by armed tactical officers in Dighton, Massachusetts. WCVB TV via AP
Teixeira, who holds the rank of aviator first class, has had a top-secret security clearance since 2021, the FBI said.
An agent contacted an unnamed operator of a social media platform popular with gamers where documents, many of them related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, began appearing last December.
That witness told investigators he had online video calls with the poster, who “called himself ‘Jack’ and ‘appeared to live in Massachusetts and claimed to be in the United States Air National Guard,’ the FBI agent said.
The final investigative steps leading to Teixeira’s arrest seemed to be progressing quickly.
The social media platform on Wednesday “provided data to the FBI in accordance with legal process,” which led the agent to Teixeira, the affidavit said. The witness identified the suspect Thursday from Teixeira’s DMV photo, according to the affidavit.
Teixeira joined the Air National Guard in September 2019 and is stationed at the Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, assigned as a cyber-transport systems companion.
Jack Teixeira.via Facebook
His arrest followed weeks of intense work by federal authorities to uncover the source of the leak, which may have exposed hundreds of pages of information about Russian efforts in Ukraine and spying on US allies.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that the Defense Department is reviewing “the methods of access, accountability and control procedures” related to sensitive material.
“So that nothing like this can ever happen again,” Garland told reporters at an event in which the Justice Department announced it would indict 28 members of Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel.
US Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, said he will meet with Pentagon officials next week in which he will ask “how could this possibly have happened?”
“You know, we spend billions and billions of dollars collecting these secrets and keeping these secrets and for a 21-year-old to be able to open them up, print them out and then share them with a bunch of his teenage friends is just puzzling,” Krishnamoorthi, a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said on MSNBC’s “José Díaz-Balart Reports.”
“This is absolutely ridiculous.”
Brian Michael reported from Boston and David K. Li from New York City.
