Jack Teixeira enters guilty plea for disclosing sensitive national defence data

The person from the Massachusetts Air National Guard who shared secret intelligence reports on social media has confessed to keeping and sharing classified information on purpose.

22-year-old Jack Teixeira admitted to all six charges against him for breaking the espionage act in court on Monday morning.

Teixeira said he would talk with the intelligence community and the U.S Court documents say that the Department of Defense must give all the important papers it has or knows about.

In return, the prosecutors have said they will request the judge to give a prison sentence of 16 years and 8 months. The suggested sentence is much shorter than the much longer prison sentence he could have gotten if he didn’t make a deal. According to court documents, prosecutors said they won’t charge Teixeira with more crimes under the Espionage Act.

A judge will make the final decision in September. The person from Massachusetts has been in jail since he was first arrested in April 2023.

The leaked document shocked the intelligence world when it was first revealed last year. The leak made people wonder how a 21-year-old computer expert with weapons and a history of violent talk could get high-level security clearance from the US government.

It also showed that the Pentagon had big problems keeping its most important secrets safe, according to defence and intelligence sources at the time.

Teixeira stood with his two lawyers and said he was guilty on Monday morning. He had on an orange outfit from prison and a rosary around his neck. Teixeira’s family and supporters, including his father, sat behind him.

Court papers say that Teixeira managed a little-known chat room on Discord called “Thug Shaker Central,” where people shared funny pictures and talked about guns and religion.

While working at a military base on Cape Cod, Teixeira searched government databases without permission, even though he was told not to by his bosses. According to prosecutors, Teixeira started posting messages with secret information in a chat app called Discord. Later, he also put up pictures of secret documents.

The papers, some of which were looked at by CNN, had very secret info in them. This info included listening in on important friends and enemies and honest opinions about the Russia-Ukraine war. Lawyers claim that the papers Teixeira shared also have details about a US company’s accounts that were accessed by a “foreign enemy. ” There is also a document talking about a plan by a foreign enemy to attack US forces overseas.

Judge Indira Talwani talked about what Teixeira is accused of doing and the information he is accused of giving out during the court hearing on Monday. She asked Teixeira if he disagreed with the accusations.

“No, Judge,” said Teixeira.

The judge asked if there was any disagreement about whether the documents were top secret and if their unauthorized disclosure could harm national security.

Teixeira said, “No, judge. ”

The lawyers said that after the information was made public, Teixeira got rid of his electronic devices and got a new phone number and email address. He was arrested at his home in Massachusetts about a week later.

After he was accused, the US Air Force punished 15 people who did not report concerns about Teixeira’s behavior before the leaks. This includes the commander of Teixeira’s unit, who was removed from his position.

Michael Bachrach, Teixeira’s lawyer, said outside the federal courthouse in Boston that his client admitted to doing the right thing and did not sell secret information to other countries.