Global Courant 2023-04-15 08:53:18
They reveal, among other things, important details about Teixeira’s access to classified documents, his career in the military, and the timeline of events that led to his arrest on April 13.
Both charges combined carry a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
The documents, which the suspect reportedly shared in an online gaming chat room, included details about wartime operations in Ukraine, and US intelligence on allies and adversaries around the world.
Although US authorities have yet to provide details about the investigation or the extent of the leak, court documents filed Friday give insight into Teixeira’s life and how the leak allegedly came about.
We look at what the charging document reveals.
The first documents were leaked in December
The criminal complaint against Teixeira includes an affidavit prepared by an FBI special agent specializing in counterintelligence and espionage.
In this statement, the agent claims that a netizen – with a username that was later linked to Teixeira through payment records – began posting in December 2022 what appeared to be “classified information”.
The contents were posted on a Discord chat server dedicated to discussing geopolitical issues, according to the affidavit.
In January, the text continues, photographs of documents were published that “contained what appeared to be classification seals on official United States government documents.”
An anonymous social media user, identified as User 1, told the FBI that one of the documents released at the early stage “described the situation of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine,” including troop movements on a specific day.
The affidavit indicates that the document was “based on confidential US intelligence information, obtained through classified sources and methods.”
Being classified as “top secret” it was assumed that its disclosure could cause “exceptionally serious damage” to national security, the affidavit says.
User 1 also told the FBI that Teixeira “was afraid that they would catch him transcribing texts at his workplace, so he began to take the documents to his home and photograph them.”
The photographs of some of the leaked documents, reviewed by the BBC, appear to have been taken at a private residence.
In several, a kitchen counter and floor tiles can be clearly seen, and in others various personal objects can be seen on a desk.
ReutersThis was the arrest of Teixeira.
Teixeira had access to information considered “top secret”
Court documents show Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in September 2019.
He currently holds the rank E-3/Airman First Class – a relatively low level – and in February was listed as a “cyber defense operations officer.”
In 2021, it was granted a “top secret” security clearance and granted “confidential compartmentalized access” to other classified US government programs.
To obtain this authorization, he would have been required to sign a binding lifetime non-disclosure agreement “in which he would have had to agree that unauthorized disclosure of protected information could result in criminal charges.”
Mark Zaid, a national security lawyer who frequently works on cases involving classified information, told the BBC that it is not entirely unusual for someone as young as Teixeira to have access to classified documents like those that were leaked online.
“There are a lot of people that age who have access to classified information, especially in the National Guard,” Zaid said.
“The question is, rather, why was he able to access documents that he probably had no need to know,” he added.
As an airman assigned to Cyber Transportation Systems, Teixeira was responsible for helping operate the Air Force’s global communications network.
According to Zaid, this role would have given him access to the World Union of Intelligence Communications Systems (JWICS), which he described as an “information library” on US intelligence.
Looked up the word “filtration”
The criminal complaint also alleges that Teixeira searched his computer for intelligence information with the word “leak” on April 6, the same day the first information about the leaks was made public.
“Consequently, there are reasons to believe that Teixeira was looking for classified information regarding reports by the US intelligence community on the identity of the author of the leaks,” the document added.
Charged under the Espionage Act
The charges also indicate that Teixeira’s criminal charges fall partly under the Espionage Law.
Specifically, his first charge responds to a statute that provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years, as well as fines, for any person who “copy, subtract, create or obtain; or attempt to copy, steal, create or obtain” various government documents.
This information, the statute states, “could be used to the detriment of the United States or to the benefit of any foreign nation.”
With additional reporting from Aiden Johnson in Washington DC.
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