Alleged Pentagon leaker ‘admonished by his superiors’ multiple times over classified document handling
Mike Brest
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Air Force officials admonished Airman Jack Teixeira for his handling of classified information months before it was discovered that he allegedly leaked documents on a Discord channel.
Prosecutors disclosed the new information in a Wednesday court filing ahead of the resumption of his detention hearing on Friday. They argued in the new filing that keeping Teixeira, 21, behind bars while he awaits trial is even more important than previously understood.
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The airman was reprimanded twice in the fall of 2022 regarding his handling of sensitive information before he allegedly went on to share hundreds of classified documents on Discord over a span of months before his arrest on April 13.
On Sept. 15, he was observed taking notes on classified documents and was instructed that he should “no longer take notes in any form on classified intelligence information,” according to a memorandum for record by the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard that was included as an appendix in the court filing.
He was also given a cease-and-desist order on deep-diving into intelligence information.
On Oct. 20, he attended an intelligence briefing in which he proceeded to ask very specific questions, according to another memo from his unit, while days later, superiors were made aware that he may have been ignoring the order.
Teixeira was told to “focus on his job” but apparently declined the chance to explore cross-training opportunities.
He was then also caught using a Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System machine, the filing said. The person who saw him found him viewing “content not related to his primary duty” that had to do with the “intelligence field” in late January, which is after he began allegedly leaking documents.
Each of the memos had partially redacted information.
It’s believed that Teixeira began leaking paragraphs of text copied from classified documents in a Discord channel of a few dozen young men with similar interests in December, and about a month later, he allegedly started printing the documents out, taking them home, photographing them, and then posting them.
Teixeira’s lawyers have argued he should not stay behind bars as he awaits trial and instead should be released into his father’s custody. Part of their argument is that Teixeira did not want these documents to be disseminated far and wide — that he was sharing them with friends. Prosecutors said in their filing that their arguments were “facially unpersuasive at the hearing and have only been further undercut by the government’s continued investigation.”
Prosecutors said he posted classified information on multiple servers on Discord, with one of them having had at least 150 users at the time the information was posted, and that “it is clear that the dissemination of the classified national defense information that the Defendant unlawfully posted was even more widespread and diverse than previously known.”
“The weight of the evidence against the Defendant has only grown stronger, and the risks the Defendant poses if released have only come into sharper focus,” the filing said. “Because no condition or combination of conditions would satisfy the concrete and serious concerns raised by the government, the Defendant should remain detained.”
Teixeira has not entered a plea.
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Teixeira’s alleged leak included hundreds of documents detailing the reach of the U.S. intelligence community and revealed key information regarding allies and adversaries alike, though the apparent doctoring of some of the leaked documents raised questions about their veracity.
The Pentagon is reviewing its procedures surrounding the handling of classified credentials and information, while the Air Force is conducting its own investigation. The commander and the detachment commander overseeing administrative support of Teixeira’s unit have both been temporarily suspended amid the fallout of the extraordinary leaks.