A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced a Massachusetts Air National Guard member to 15 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine.
Jack Teixeira, 22, pleaded guilty this year to six counts of wilful retention and transmission of national defence information under the Espionage Act, after his arrest in the most consequential national security case in years.
Teixeira admitted that he illegally collected some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and shared them with other users on the social media platform Discord.
He was brought into court in an orange jumpsuit and showed no visible reaction as he was sentenced by US District Judge Indira Talwani. Earlier in the hearing, he apologised before the judge.
Prosecutors had originally requested a 17-year sentence for Teixeira, saying he “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history”.
Defence lawyers had sought an 11-year sentence. In their sentence memorandum, they acknowledged that their client “made a terrible decision which he repeated over 14 months”, but they argued that Teixeira’s actions, although criminal, were never meant to “harm the United States”. He also had no prior criminal record.
The security breach raised alarm over America’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced President Joe Biden's administration to rush to contain the diplomatic and military fallout.
The leaks embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to protect classified information and disciplined members found to have intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira’s suspicious behaviour.
Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, was a cyber transport systems specialist, which is essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks. He remains in the Air National Guard in an unpaid status, an Air Force official said.
Authorities said he first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore Secret and Top Secret markings. Prosecutors also said he tried to cover his tracks before his arrest, and authorities found a smashed tablet computer, laptop and an Xbox gaming console in a skip at his house.
The leak exposed to the world secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine, and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a US adversary’s plans to harm American forces serving overseas.