Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira was sentenced to fifteen years in jail Tuesday after admitting that he shared extremely categorised navy paperwork concerning the struggle in Ukraine on Discord.
The disgraced 22-year-old former Massachusetts Air Nationwide guardsman may even be topic to 3 years of supervised launch when his jail time period is up, Boston federal courtroom Decide Indira Talwani dominated.
The sentence follows Teixeira’s March responsible plea to 6 counts of willfully retaining and transmitting nationwide protection info associated to the unprecedented safety breach.
Federal prosecutors had sought a most jail sentence of 200 months, or greater than 16 years behind bars, for Teixeira – arguing that the ex-cyber transport techniques journeyman “perpetrated one of the vital important and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American historical past.”
“As each a member of the US Armed Forces and a clearance holder, the defendant took an oath to defend the US and to guard its secrets and techniques — secrets and techniques which might be very important to US nationwide safety and the bodily security of People serving abroad,” prosecutors instructed the choose. “Teixeira violated his oath, virtually day-after-day, for over a 12 months.”
Attorneys for Teixeira – a local of North Dighton, Mass., who enlisted within the US Air Nationwide Guard in 2019 – argued for the minimal sentence of 11 years in jail, citing the leaker’s post-arrest autism prognosis and his ADHD.
“Jack continues to be primarily a baby – on the very least, a ‘youthful offender’ – who has his entire life in entrance of him,” Teixeira’s attorneys wrote in a sentencing memo to Talwani.
His authorized workforce described Teixeira as an remoted particular person who didn’t intend to “hurt the US” and solely sought to “educate his associates about world occasions.”
“To Jack, the Ukraine struggle was his technology’s World Struggle II or Iraq, and he wanted somebody to share the expertise with,” his attorneys wrote.
Teixeira was arrested at his mom’s home in April 2023 after being implicated within the disclosure of top-secret Pentagon paperwork elementing intelligence assessments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, together with “how the tools can be transferred, and the way the tools can be used upon receipt,” in line with his federal indictment.
The previous member of the Air Nationwide Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing posted the intelligence paperwork on a Discord chat room that he dubbed “Thug Shaker Central.”
Teixiera acknowledged in courtroom that he abused his safety clearance to switch the categorised materials from authorities laptop networks and print out and {photograph} the delicate intelligence.
He was stationed at Otis Air Nationwide Guard Base in Cape Cod when he started posting categorised paperwork on-line in January 2022, in line with the Justice Division.
The astounding nationwide safety breach was thought of essentially the most critical since former Military intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning leaked 700,000 paperwork, movies and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks in 2010.
“The hurt the defendant prompted to the nationwide safety from his disclosures of nationwide protection info is extraordinary,” prosecutors stated forward of Monday’s sentencing listening to. “By posting intelligence merchandise on the social media platform Discord to feed his personal ego and impress his nameless associates, Teixeira prompted exceptionally grave injury to the nationwide safety of the US.”
“The scope of his betrayal is breathtaking,” they added.
As a part of his plea settlement, Teixeira was ordered to take a seat for a debriefing with Pentagon and DOJ officers and switch over any delicate paperwork which will nonetheless be in his possession.
Teixeira individually faces a navy court-martial – scheduled for March – on costs alleging that he violated the Uniform Code of Army Justice.
With Publish wires
Supply hyperlink
