Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on April 13 the arrest of Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard suspected of leaking top secret Pentagon documents was taken into custody without incident. YouTube Tips ⓘ
US Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday, April 13, 2023 that the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira, an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard.
Teixeira is accused of unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.
Teixeira was taken into custody by FBI agents early Thursday afternoon without incident. Teixeira will have an initial appearance at the US District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
Speaking at a news conference April 13 at the Pentagon, Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder called the leak of dozens of classified documents a “deliberate criminal act.” YouTube Tips ⓘ
Department of Defense spokesperson Brigadier Gen. Patrick S. Ryder described the leak of several classified documents as a deliberate, criminal act.
The Washington Post described “the man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets” as a “young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic.”
The Washington Post provided video interviews of some members of the Discord group where classified intelligence documents were posted, and where these members reverently referred to Jack Douglas Teixeira as ‘OG’
In April 2023, two sets of classified documents of the United States, primarily related to the Russo-Ukrainian War, began circulating on Twitter, Telegram, and 4chan. The classified documents included details about foreign nations, including North Korea, China, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates. According to the New York Times, The leak included classified material beyond the subject of Ukraine, and that analysts reported the documents also include sensitive material on Canada, China, Israel and South Korea, in addition to the Indo-Pacific military theater and the Middle East.
The documents were spreading on instant messaging platform Discord, and allegedly originate from a Discord server known as “Thug Shaker Central”, according to a Bellingcat investigation.
According to a Twitter post at 11:12 a.m. Thursday, April 13, 2023, Bellingcat’s Aric Toler worked with the New York Times to uncover a trail of digital evidence that appears to identify Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Air National Guardsman, as the leader of an online gaming chat group where US intelligence documents were leaked. The tweet provided a link to New York Times article
A subset of documents were sent to Discord servers for a British-Filipino YouTuber and the sandbox video game Minecraft in late February and early March 2023. A 4chan user posted several documents in April 2023 on the website’s political imageboard /pol/. The documents were then spread throughout pro-Russian Telegram channels.
Markings on the classified documents are being studied to learn the origin of the classified content, and how the content was shared with The Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance of The United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The content is considered potentially damaging if it reveals the extent of intelligence gathered by the United States and allies, reveals methods related to intelligence gathering, or who was gathering intelligence.
According to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Five Eyes partnership is an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
The Hill’s Briahna Joy Gray and Reason Senior Editor Robby Soave react to news that the New York Time has revealed the name of Pentagon document leaker, which is reportedly Jack Teixeira. YouTube Tips ⓘ
See also …
Discord member details how documents leaked from closed chat group
Here’s what we know about the leader of the online group where secret documents were leaked.