Former US military man Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaking Pentagon secrets

Jack Teixeira, a US Air National Guard member who leaked Pentagon documents last year, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in one of the most notorious intelligence cases in recent years.

Teixeira, 22, pleaded guilty in March Intentional withholding and dissemination of national defense information,

Working at an Air National Guard base, Teixeira obtained material including maps, satellite images, and intelligence on American allies, and then posted those documents on an online platform popular among video game fans.

Among the documents he shared were Confidential information about the war in Ukraine.

Prosecutors asked Judge Indira Talwani to sentence Teixeira to 16½ years in prison, while defense attorneys requested an 11-year sentence.

In their request for a lighter sentence, Teixeira’s lawyers argued in court that the young man was subjected to harassment at his school and in his military unit and was suffering from isolation.

Meanwhile, prosecutors sought a longer sentence, saying Teixeira “committed one of the most consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”

“Teixeira understood the risk his country was taking and did it anyway.”Prosecutors told Judge Talwani.

Teixeira enlisted in the United States Air Force Reserve, Air National Guard, in 2019.

He worked as an information technology specialist at an airport on the Cape Cod Peninsula in Massachusetts.

Despite being in a relatively low range, in 2021 He was provided authorization to obtain top-level security information.

To obtain this authorization, Teixeira signed a “Lifetime Binding Non-Disclosure Agreement” In which he acknowledged that, according to court documents, “unauthorized disclosure of protected information could result in criminal charges.”

The young man was responsible for helping operate the Air Force’s global communications network. National security lawyer Mark Zaid says that having that work would have given them access to the World Union of Intelligence Communications Systems (JWICS), which is kind of US intelligence “information library”

In 2022, Teixeira began sharing classified information with a small group of weapons and war game enthusiasts in a Discord chat room, where he also posted memes.

According to information collected by the new York Times Among the members of that group, Teixeira intended to teach and influence his virtual friends about the war. He never intended to release the documents outside that small circle, friends said.

Although the documents initially remained in that chat, the information was later re-shared on more public channels.

Later took possession of the documents pro-Kremlin Telegram channel and by military bloggers.

Teixeira was arrested in April 2023.

Teixeira’s leak was described by the Pentagon as a “very serious” breach of national security and prompted the agency to investigate its classified information processing systems.

Shortly before his sentence was announced, the young man said: “I am sorry for any harm I have caused. I understand that all responsibility and consequences fall squarely on my shoulders. And I accept that What can happen from this?

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