Former Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison for leaking classified national defense information online, including many documents designated top secret.
The Justice Department (DoJ) said Teixeira exploited his top-secret security clearance to share sensitive defense information on the social media platform Discord. Teixeira was arrested in April 2023 after leaking the information.
“Teixeira’s profound breach of trust endangered our country’s national security and that of our allies. This sentence demonstrates the seriousness of the obligation to protect our country’s secrets and the safety of the American people,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a Nov. 12 press release.
According to the Justice Department, Teixeira served with the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis USANG Base in Massachusetts as a cyber defense operations journeyman until his arrest.
While he was not arrested until April 2023, the DoJ said Teixeira unlawfully retained and shared the information online beginning around January 2022. The documents and information included a range of topics, such as descriptions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and troop movements on a particular date.
Shortly before his arrest in April, Teixeira destroyed his electronic devices, deleted his online accounts, and encouraged his online acquaintances to do the same.
“Mr. Teixeira is responsible for engaging in one of the most significant leaks of classified documents and information in United States history, which resulted in exceptionally grave and long-lasting damage to the national security of the United States,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy for the District of Massachusetts. “This is disturbing conduct that will not go unnoticed and unchecked.”
In December 2023, the Air Force laid out actions that it is taking to better protect and regulate access to classified data following the breach. Some of these reforms include improving need-to-know enforcement for electronic and hard-copy classified information, as well as improving security training content and delivery.
