Global Courant 2023-04-14 20:46:20
Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, accused of leaking documents that the Department of Defense says contain “sensitive and top secret material,” was charged Friday with the unauthorized retention and disclosure of national defense information and the deliberate retention of classified documents.
Teixeira, who was handcuffed and wearing a khaki prison suit, was read out shortly after 10 a.m. local time during an appearance in federal court in Boston. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, he did not enter a plea and was ordered to be held pending a detention hearing scheduled for Wednesday, April 19.
The federal courthouse appearance comes after Teixeira was taken into custody by the FBI at his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, less than 24 hours ago.
His father shouted “I love you, Jack!” during the hearing. He replied, “I love you father.”
WHO IS JACK TEIXEIRA, THE AIR NATIONAL GUARDSMEN WHO ARE BEHIND BEHIND LEAKED CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS?
Selfie of Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old National Guard aviator accused of leaking classified information. (Facebook)
A criminal indictment obtained by Fox News on Friday says the FBI on Monday interviewed a member of a social media platform who told a special agent that a person — later identified as Teixeira — began posting to the platform “what appeared to be classified information” beginning in December 2022. The messages, the person said, appeared on a group focused on discussing “geopolitical matters and current and historic wars.”
The person said the individual first started sharing paragraphs of text, but around January this year began posting images of documents that appeared to contain classification marks.
One of the documents, prosecutors say, “described the status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including troop movements, as of a specific date” — information that “is based on sensitive US intelligence, collected through classified sources and methods, and includes national defense .” information.”
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The person said he had conversations with Teixeira and at one point the young man “explained that he had become concerned that he would be discovered while he was making the transcripts of text in the workplace, so he started sending the documents to his home and photograph them.”
Based on conversations this individual had with Teixeira, he further learned that his first name was Jack and “appeared to live in Massachusetts, and claimed to be in the United States Air National Guard,” the complaint said.
And then, on April 6, Teixeira “used his government computer to search classified intelligence reports for the word ‘leak’,” the indictment said.
FBI ARRESTS MASSACHUSETTS AIR NATIONAL GUARDSMAN JACK TEIXEIRA IN PROBE OF CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT LEAKS
This image, taken from a WCVB-TV video, shows Jack Teixeira, in T-shirt and shorts, being taken into custody by armed tactical officers in Dighton, Massachusetts on Thursday, April 13, 2023. (WCVB TV via AP)
Attorney General Merrick Garland said after Teixeira’s arrest Thursday that the young man is being investigated for “allegedly unauthorized removal, preservation and disclosure of classified national defense information.”
Teixeira joined the Air National Guard in September 2019 and worked as a cybersecurity systems journeyman, a position in which he held the highest security clearance granted by the federal government for top secret information, according to an internal Defense Department email that Fox-rated News.
WATCH: TEIXEIRA’S FATHER LEAVES COURT BUILDING:
His security clearance and access to secret government systems have since been revoked, according to another internal government document.
Teixeira was last stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod as a member of the 102nd Intelligence Wing. According to the unit, he was promoted to pilot first class in July.
Details of the leaked Pentagon documents were reported last week by The Washington Post, which obtained dozens of photos of classified intelligence briefings on Ukraine’s combat capabilities, information on the Ukrainian and Russian armies, and highly sensitive analysis on US allies and adversaries. , including China.
Relatives of Jack Teixeira leave John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse after his arraignment on April 14, 2023 in Boston. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
Relatives of Jack Teixeira leave John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse after his arraignment on April 14, 2023 in Boston. Teixeria, a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, was charged with two counts: the unauthorized retention and disclosure of national defense information and the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials. (Scott Eisen/Getty Images)
President Biden has said nothing leaked was “of major concern,” but White House national security spokesman John Kirby warned Wednesday: “We don’t know what else this person or persons have and may yet release. .”
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The FBI began investigating Teixeira in connection with the leaks before Thursday, but was forced to accelerate their plans to arrest him after The New York Times identified him Thursday morning, a source briefed on the investigation told Fox News.
The report named Teixeira the leader of a Discord group called “Thug Shaker Central” that consisted of about 20 to 30 young men. Discord is an instant messaging social media platform popular with gamers – members of Thug Shaker Central are said to have bonded together during the pandemic playing video games, sharing memes and discussing guns.
Chris Pandolfo, Lucas Y. Tomlinson, Peter Doocy, Alexis McAdams, David Spunt, Liz Friden, Gillian Turner, Jake Gibson, and Paul Best of Fox News contributed to this report.
Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.
