16-6-2023 (WASHINGTON) A federal grand jury in Boston has indicted Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old air national guardsman from the Massachusetts Air National Guard, on charges of unlawfully disclosing national defense information. The indictment includes six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to national defense, as announced by the Department of Justice.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, while announcing the indictment, stated, “As laid out in the indictment, Jack Teixeira was entrusted by the United States government with access to classified national defense information – including information that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared.” Garland further added, “Teixeira is charged with sharing information with users on a social media platform he knew were not entitled to receive it. In doing so, he is alleged to have violated U.S. law and endangered our national security.”
Teixeira, who has been detained since his arrest in April, allegedly leaked classified documents from the Department of Defense. The content of these documents involved Ukraine’s defense amidst its conflict with Russia, internal deliberations within the South Korean government regarding potential indirect arms transfers to Ukraine, and U.S. assessments on Mossad’s support for mass protests against judicial reform in Israel, among other topics.
Initially shared with his friends on Discord, an online chatting app popular among video gamers, the leaked materials subsequently spread widely on the internet. The documents revealed the United States’ ongoing surveillance efforts, targeting not only countries it considers adversaries but also longstanding allies.
Since the scandal emerged, officials from various U.S. government agencies, including the National Security Council, the Department of State, and the Pentagon, have worked to contain the fallout. They have refrained from confirming the accuracy of the leaked information and sought to minimize any potential impact on cooperation between the United States and its allies.
