Lloyd Austin on classified documents age restrictions: ‘Vast majority of our military is young’
Mike Brest
Video Embed
The relative youth of the airman accused of leaking hundreds of classified military documents has raised questions, but Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin believes his age is not relevant.
Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira was charged last week with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material, according to court documents. In light of his age, lawmakers and critics have questioned why a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman would have access to classified documents about America’s allies and adversaries across the globe.
SUSPECT FIRST LEAKED TEXT OF CLASSIFIED DOCS AROUND DECEMBER, AFFIDAVIT SAYS
Austin, who has directed a review of how the Pentagon determines who has access to what classified intelligence and why, dismissed the airman’s age as a significant factor in the case during a press conference on Tuesday with Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson in Stockholm.
“The vast majority of our military is young,” Austin said. “So it’s exceptional that young people are doing important things in our military. That’s really not the issue. The issue is — and by the way, he had a top-secret clearance — the issue is how you responsibly execute or carry out your duties and how you protect the information. You know, all of us have a requirement to do that, and supervisors have a requirement to make sure that that’s being done.”
More than 44% of the active-duty military is 25 years or younger, according to 2021 demographics from a Defense Department website.
Teixeira was a cyber transport systems journeyman with the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He leaked hundreds of documents on a Discord channel to about 20-30 like-minded people who were around his age for months, though it was only uncovered when someone else shared those documents on other social media platforms.
“For context, I would tell you that this young man was a systems administrator. So he was a computer specialist that worked in an intelligence unit, and so their business was intelligence, and part of his responsibility was maintaining the network that they operate on,” the defense secretary said, noting that the Department of Justice’s investigation is underway.
The Pentagon has already made some changes to who has access to certain classified information. Austin also directed Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, to lead the review process last week, and he has 45 days to submit his recommendations to the secretary.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“What I can say is that we are [going] through some of our distribution lists and who has access to certain information. That effort is going to be ongoing. It’s not just going to stop tomorrow, and it’s not going to stop after a week,” Pentagon deputy spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said on Monday. “This is going to be a long-term effort.”
A judge has postponed the detention hearing for Teixeira on Wednesday for roughly two weeks.