The US Air National Guardsman was brought before a federal judge on Friday, April 14, on accusations related to the alleged leak of a large number of sensitive US documents. During the brief session, he even told his father that he loved him.
Jack Teixeira made an appearance in a Boston court where he was formally charged with the improper retention, transmission, and removal of national defense information and materials. The offenses are punishable by up to 10 and 5 years in prison, respectively.
Two federal charges have been filed against Jack Teixeira, a US Guard member suspected of leaking many Pentagon papers.
Following a week-long investigation into the internet publication of classified government documents, Teixeira was detained by heavily armed federal agents outside his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on Thursday, April 13.
He is accused of using his guardsman position to gain access to the sensitive information, sharing it with members of the exclusive Discord chat group he oversaw earlier this year.
Before becoming viral, the classified materials were eventually released on various social media platforms and included battlefield details pertaining to the wars in Ukraine, South Korea, and Israel.
In the hearings on Friday, Teixeira didn’t formally plead guilty and only reacted when the court read him his rights.
“I love you, Jack,” his father yelled during the hearing. Fox News said that Teixeira just said, “I love you dad,” without turning around.
Following his detention, Teixeira’s security clearance and access to government systems were revoked.
The FBI was able to identify Teixeira as the suspected leaker because to the social networking platform Discord’s billing records and conversations with another user, according to an affidavit that was unsealed on Friday.
The user, who is unnamed in the document, informed the FBI that Teixeira’s Discord identity began uploading what seemed to be classified information during the month of December.
Teixeira, who allegedly initially wrote out the documents to share with his online friends, began taking them home and snapping pictures of them because he was “concerned that he may be discovered making the transcriptions of text in the workplace,” according to the affidavit.
