OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
11:11 AM – Monday, March 4, 2024
Former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira accepted his 16-year jail sentence after acknowledging that he was behind one of the most shocking disclosures of classified national defense information in recent years.
On Monday, Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira accepted a plea deal that could result in more than 16 years in prison for performing one of the worst breaches of national security in the last decade.
The 22-year-old appeared in federal court in Boston, Massachusetts, chained up and wearing an orange jumpsuit.
Teixeira entered a guilty plea to each of the six allegations against him for the willful retention and delivery of information related to national defense, charges that could result in a maximum prison sentence of 60 years.
According to court records, he was arrested in April 2023 on suspicion of misusing his security clearance to share classified Pentagon documents on the online platform Discord.
Prior to his arrest in April of last year, Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and shared pictures of them on Discord, a prosecutor stated on Monday at a hearing in Boston federal court.
A federal indictment revealed that he was charged with disclosing secret information to the public regarding in-depth intelligence evaluations on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with “how the equipment would be transferred, and how the equipment would be used upon receipt.”
In 2019, Teixeira had joined the United States Air National Guard and the Justice Department stated that in 2021, despite being a low-level airman, he was given a top-secret security clearance. Teixeira was employed with the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing as a cyber transport systems journeyman during that time.
When he started publishing classified material online in January 2022, he was based at the Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod, according to the Justice Department.
According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the data that Teixeira posted on the internet “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared.”
As a result, Teixeira, 22, agreed to enter a plea of guilty to each of the six counts accusing him with the willful retention and transmission of information related to national defense, as per the signed plea agreement submitted to the court.
Teixeira walked into court wearing handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit, where he subtly smiled at his father, who was seated in the crowd. He stood with defense attorney Michael Bachrach before Judge Indira Talwani.
Regarding Teixiera’s plea agreement, the former guardsman agreed to receive a prison sentence of between 11 years and 16 years and eight months. Ultimately, the federal judge in his case will determine how much time he receives.
Additionally, Teixeira will be subject to three years of supervised release after his release from federal prison and a $50,000 fine as part of the terms of his agreement with the prosecution.
According to the court filings, he was also directed to return any national security documents that might have been in his possession and to attend a debriefing with representatives of the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice.
The plea agreement further states that he consented “that he has a continuing legal obligation to refrain from the unauthorized oral or written disclosure of classified information, or information relating to the national defense.”
In return, federal prosecutors agreed not to press further Espionage Act charges against Teixeria.
Teixeira was held accountable by the internal investigation for the unauthorized release of classified material, but it also found that his unit’s members had neglected to take proper actions, like conducting thorough inspections of the areas they were in charge of and providing inconsistent instructions on how to report security incidents.
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