A magistrate judge on Thursday put off making an immediate decision about continued pre-trial confinement for the Massachusetts National Guard airman accused of leaking hundreds of government secrets to a social media messaging site.
Federal prosecutors said Airman Jack Teixeira, 21, is a flight risk and should not be released from detention on bail. In what could be the biggest intelligence leak in years, he has been charged with posting classified military documents to the Discord online chat platform. This includes sensitive information about the status of the Russia-Ukraine war, such as troop movements.
“His release would heighten the risk that he would make further unauthorized disclosures of classified national defense information,” prosecutors said in court documents. “He has an enormous incentive to flee, and there are numerous adversaries of the United States that could provide him the means to do so, regardless of the conditions set by the court.”
In court documents, prosecutors also revealed that Airman Teixeira owned “a virtual arsenal” of firearms and had used his government-supplied computer to search for phrases about violent incidents such as “Ruby Ridge,” “Las Vegas Shooting” and “Uvalde.”
“The defendant has already proved himself to be a danger to the U.S. national security,” prosecutors said. “In light of the physical danger posed by the defendant, if released, there is simply no condition or combination of conditions that can be fashioned to adequately address and mitigate the risk posed by his release.”
Prosecutors also released a new review of what the government says are social media posts from the accused. This includes one from November in which he said he would “kill a [expletive] ton of people” if he had his way, because it would be “culling the weak minded.”
Airman Teixeira’s father told the court he was prepared to assume custody of his son and would report him to the authorities if he violated any conditions of his bail.
But prosecutors countered that, based on the training he received in the military, Airman Teixeira would have little trouble circumventing any restrictions placed on him if he was set free pending trial.
“There is clear and convincing evidence to show that the defendant poses a threat to the integrity of this judicial proceedings,” they said according to court documents.
His attorneys accused the government of engaging in “hyperbolic judgments” about the case and denied that he was a flight risk. They noted that Airman Teixeira had waited at his family’s home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, after learning that federal agents were coming to take him into custody.
“There is no allegation in the affidavit that Mr. Teixeira had any intent for these documents to become widely available on the internet or desired to disrupt the geopolitical affairs of the United States,” his attorneys wrote in court filings ahead of Thursday’s hearing. “There is no reason to suggest that, if released, Mr. Teixeira has any motivation, desire, or current ability to commit any actions like those alleged in the complaint affidavit or in the government’s supplemental motion for detention.”
On Thursday, Pentagon officials declined to comment about Airman Teixeira’s case, citing the Justice Department investigation.
“There is an ongoing criminal investigation being led by the Department of Justice,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Defense Department spokesman, told reporters. “We need to allow this investigation to run its course.”
Prosecutors accused him of viewing hundreds of sensitive documents between February 2022 and April 2023. He also made hundreds of keyword searches in an effort to find classified information and solicited requests from his online friends about what to post.
“The defendant accessed these documents in what appears to be a deliberate effort to disseminate this country’s secrets,” according to the federal court filing.
As investigators were closing in, the airman allegedly began destroying evidence and contacting potential witnesses in what prosecutors said was a clear attempt to obstruct justice. They said he deleted the social media server where he posted government secrets, encouraged others to delete evidence that could be used against him, and got rid of several electronic devices.
Airman Teixeira also acquired a new phone number and email address at the last minute, officials said.
At the time of his arrest, Airman Teixeira was serving with the Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. He was essentially an IT worker at the unit but held a high-level Top Secret-Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance because the nature of his job put him around government information.
The arrest rattled the Pentagon and triggered multiple inquiries into how the Defense Department keeps its secrets. The Air Force has suspended the top leaders at Airman Teixeira’s unit and temporarily pulled its intelligence support mission.
In Thursday’s detention hearing, Magistrate Judge David Hennessy questioned defense arguments that the airman never expected the leaked information he put on a social media gamer chat room to be widely disseminated.
“Somebody under the age of 30 has no idea that when they put something on the internet that it could end up anywhere in this world?” the judge asked, according to The Associated Press. “Seriously?”
