Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaking classified military documents about the Ukraine war.
The 22-year-old appeared in federal court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to leaking the information to his internet friends on Discord, considered one of the most consequential national security breaches in years.
Prosecutors had urged the judge to hand down a 17 year sentence because Teixeira had ‘taken an oath to defend the United States and to protect its secrets.’
‘Secrets that are vital to U.S. national security and the physical safety of Americans serving overseas,’ prosecutors said. ‘Teixeira violated his oath, almost every day, for over a year.’
The defense accepted he ‘made a terrible decision’ repeatedly over 14 months. They hoped he would receive no more than 11 years behind bars.
‘It’s a crime that deserves serious consequences,’ his attorneys accepted.
‘Jack has thoroughly accepted responsibility for the wrongfulness of his actions and stands ready to accept whatever punishment must now be imposed.’
Teixeira pleaded guilty in March to six counts of wilfully retaining and transmitting national defense information, which fall under the umbrella of the Espionage Act.
He’d been arrested in April 2023.
The 22-year-old was collecting sensitive data and secrets using his security clearance and then sharing them on social media platform Discord.
Teixeira was described as autistic and isolated, and a young man who spent most of his time online.
His attorneys said his actions were never intended to ‘harm the United States.’
‘His intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation,’ the attorneys wrote.
‘To Jack, the Ukraine war was his generation’s World War II or Iraq, and he needed someone to share the experience with.’
Teixeira was diagnosed with autism after his arrest, and prosecutors argued it was ‘mild’ and that he remained ‘high functioning.’
Some of the information he shared was considered either ‘secret’ or ‘top secret.’
