BOSTON: A 21-year-old US national guardsman was charged with leaking a trove of classified United States government documents as he made his first appearance in court Friday.

Jack Teixeira was arrested on Thursday following a week-long probe into one of the most damaging leaks of secrets since the 2013 dump of National Security Agency documents by Edward Snowden.

He was charged with the “unauthorised retention and transmission of national defense information” at a short hearing in Boston. He is also accused of the “unauthorised removal and retention of classified documents or material”.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Friday there were “very serious penalties” associated with the leaking of scores of classified defence documents. “People who sign agreements to be able to receive classified documents acknowledge the importance to the national security of not disclosing those documents, and we intend to send that message how important it is to our national security,” he added.

Attorney general sees ‘very serious penalties’ for security breach

The embarrassing security breach has revealed American concerns about weaknesses in Ukraine’s military, and pointed to US spying on allies, including Israel and South Korea.

Teixeira appeared before a judge at Massachusetts federal court in Boston at 10am (1400 GMT). He was not required to enter a plea and was detained pending a detention hearing set for next Wednesday.

Who is Jack Teixeira?

The 21-year-old served with the Air National Guard in Massachusetts, as did his stepfather. A social media post on his mother’s flower shop’s account, made in 2021, shows a now widely-circulated photo of Teixeira in his military uniform in front of a US flag. The post notes that Teixeira’s stepbrother and stepfather were both in the military as well.

Thomas Dufault, his stepfather, retired as a master sergeant in 2019 from the 102nd Intelligence Wing, the same unit Teixeira was in. Dufault served in the military for 34 years, according to pictures from his retirement ceremony.

IT specialist

Teixeira worked as a “Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman” — an IT specialist — and was an Airman 1st class based out of Otis Air National Guard Base near Providence, Rhode Island. His unit, the 102nd intelligence wing of the Massachusetts National Guard, is responsible for providing intelligence support to many units of the military.

Teixeira joined the Air National Guard in 2019, part of the National Guard that reports to the governor of their respective state or territory. The National Guard is made up of reserve troops that often hold civilian jobs or attend schools, and often respond to domestic emergencies. Teixeira was under ‘Title 10’ authority, a designation that means he was essentially a full time member.

According to an affidavit released on Friday, Teixeira not only had a “top secret” security clearance but also he maintained “sensitive compartmented access (SCI)” since 2021, giving him broad access to highly classified information.

Discord server

The affidavit said Teixeira had started posting classified information on social media around December 2022. For reasons that haven’t been made completely clear, Teixeira shared the sensitive documents with a crew of young men who gravitated to a guns-and-ammo-focused server a kind of chat room on Discord, an instant messaging platform popular with gamers.

The private server was at one point known as “Thug Shaker Central. The Washington Post interviewed two members of the server who described the chat room as a venue for dark humor and outrageous comments, and reported viewing a video of Teixeira shouting bigoted and anti-Jewish abuse before firing a rifle.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2023