Pentagon leaker to face military trial: spokesperson

He spread highly sensitive documents on social media platform Discord, from which they spread across internet

By AFP
July 16, 2024
An undated picture shows Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard, who was arrested by the FBI, over his alleged involvement in leaks online of classified documents, posing for a selfie at an unidentified location. — Reuters/file
An undated picture shows Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard, who was arrested by the FBI, over his alleged involvement in leaks online of classified documents, posing for a selfie at an unidentified location. — Reuters/file

WASHINGTON: The US airman who admitted to leaking a trove of classified Pentagon documents will face a separate military trial, an Air Force spokesperson said on Monday.

Jack Teixeira orchestrated the most damaging leak of US classified information in a decade while serving as a junior Massachusetts Air National Guard IT specialist, posting highly sensitive documents on the social media platform Discord, from which they spread across the internet.

“The charges were officially referred to trial on 2 July 2024,” the Air Force spokesperson said, adding: “The trial will take place at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA, but the date is to be determined.”

Teixeira was arrested in April 2023 and could spend up to nearly 17 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to six federal counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information.

Because he was on active duty at the time of the offenses, he was subject to both federal law and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), and he will face a military trial for alleged violations of the latter.