Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, has been charged with the Espionage Act for leaking classified documents and photographs. The prosecutors are now seeking a 17-year prison term for Teixeira, while his attorneys are arguing for 11. He’s scheduled to be sentenced on November 12.
Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of the willful retention and transmission of national defence information under the Espionage Act, hailed as one of the most consequential national security leaks since Snowden. The plea came almost a year after the 22-year-old was arrested for illegally collecting and sharing some of the US’ most sensitive secrets around the Ukraine war on Discord.
Teixeira’s attorneys acknowledged that their client “made a terrible decision which he repeated over 14 months.” At the time of his guilty plea, the prosecutors had clarified that they’d be seeking a prison term at the upper end of the sentencing range. However, his defence now argues that 11 years would be “serious and adequate to account” for his crimes, adding that it would amount to half the defendant has life until the hearing.
Their defence largely centres around the fact that Teixeira is autistic, isolated, and spent most of his time with the Discord community to which he leaked the classified material. They also claim that his intention was not to cause harm to the United States but instead was to “educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,” adding that to him, the war in Ukraine is essentially his generation’s World War II or Iraq and that “he needed someone to share the experience with.”
The prosecution, however, claims that his post-arrest diagnosis as having mild, high-functioning autism and challenged its relevance to the hearing. Whatever developmental or social difficulties Teixeira may have had, the prosecution doesn’t seem to be convinced that they played a part in his leaking the information, claiming that it was a choice he made”knowingly, willfully, and with full awareness of the consequences time and time again.”
The leaked information consistent of secret assessments of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, including intel on troop movements in Ukraine and provisioning of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted to leaking information about a US enemy’s plan to attack US forces serving overseas.
In any case, the leak sent the Biden administration scrambling to protect the diplomatic and military damage, embarrassing the Pentagon and ending up in tighter control to protect classified information. The Pentagon also reported took action against members found to have failed to act on Teixeira’s suspicious behaviour.
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