Judge postpones detention hearing for Pentagon leaker

This photo illustration created on April 13, 2023, shows the suspect, national guardsman Jack Teixeira, reflected in an image of the Pentagon in Washington, DC. - FBI agents on Thursday arrested a young national guardsman suspected of being behind a major leak of sensitive US government secrets -- including about the Ukraine war. US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the arrest made "in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information." (Photo by Stefani REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
This photo illustration created on April 13, 2023, shows the suspect, national guardsman Jack Teixeira, reflected in an image of the Pentagon in Washington, DC. – FBI agents on Thursday arrested a young national guardsman suspected of being behind a major leak of sensitive US government secrets — including about the Ukraine war. US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the arrest made “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.” (Photo by Stefani REYNOLDS / AFP) (Photo by STEFANI REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)

OAN Geraldyn Berry
UPDATED 12:43 PM – Wednesday, April 19, 2023

In response to a plea from the defense of Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Douglas Teixeira on Wednesday, United States District Magistrate Judge David Hennessy has agreed to postpone the detention hearing.

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According to court records, Teixeira also renounced his right to a preliminary hearing and he appeared briefly in federal court in Boston on Wednesday.

Teixeira will remain in custody despite a two-week delay in the detention hearing that was originally scheduled for Wednesday. Despite making a quick appearance, no specific date was set.

Teixeira’s attorney Brendan Kelley affirmed that “the defense requires more time to address the issues presented by the government’s request for detention.”

In a series of leaks that highlighted the breadth of U.S. intelligence gathering on both its allies and opponents, the 21-year-old is accused of uploading secret intelligence, including critical information about the war in Ukraine, on the social media platform Discord. He has not made a formal plea and is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act.

Teixeira, an airman first class, was stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, where he worked on a classified computer network. He obtained a top-secret security clearance in 2021.

Questions regarding how classified information is handled throughout the government have been raised in light of the fact that the documents were available online for months prior to their discovery.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall testified before a Senate committee that Teixeira’s unit, the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Air National Guard stationed in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, was under investigation for “anything associated with this leak that could have gone wrong.”

“Obviously we have to tighten up our processes and our practices to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Kendall said.

Kendall said Teixeira “had no reason to be looking at or having possession of those documents.”

Following the leak, the Pentagon has restricted access to sensitive information, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a 45-day assessment of how the Defense Department handles secret intelligence.

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