In court: Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking US military secrets while stationed on Cape Cod

BOSTON — Jack Teixeira, wiry frame swimming in a tan prison jumpsuit, stepped gingerly into a Boston courthouse packed with media on Friday.

The Dighton 21-year-old faces charges that he leaked sensitive military documents detailing U.S. intelligence to friends in a Discord online chatroom, where the documents eventually spread to the open internet.

Teixeira — an airman first class stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Sandwich — was charged Friday morning with two counts: unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material, according to a criminal complaint filed with the clerk’s office Friday.

The first charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and the second carries a maximum five-year-sentence.

Jack Teixeira's arrest MA Air National Guardsman from Dighton stationed on Cape Cod, arrested over military leaks

Teixeira will be held in detention until his next court appearance on April 19.

David H. Hennessy, the magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts who presided over the court appearance, said Teixeira would be held in detention until his next court appearance on April 19.

Teixeira's first day in court began a little after 10 a.m. on Friday and lasted only a few minutes.

Family seated in the front row reacted emotionally when he shuffled into the courtroom, hands cuffed in front of him, brown eyes open wide.

Teixeira, who was taken into custody Thursday, responded to a few brief procedural questions from Hennessy about his rights with a soft “Yes, sir.”

Leaked military documents court coverage Jack Teixeira, of Dighton, held without bail related to leaked Ukraine, Pentagon documents

The Dighton airman is accused of posting military secrets as early as December 2022.

Teixeira is accused of posting top secret military documents on the social media site Discord where users can communicate through voice and video calls, as well as text messages, and post media in private chats or in group servers, some of which require an invitation to join, according to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Patrick Lueckenhoff. 

Some of the documents Teixeira is accused of posting depict government information “that was used to inform senior military and civilian government officials during briefings at the Pentagon,” Lueckenhoff wrote.

A person interviewed by the FBI on Monday allegedly said that Teixeira began posting the secret information in December 2022 on a server where users discussed “geopolitical affairs and current and historical wars,” Lueckenhoff wrote.

Teixeira is accused of posting information about the Ukraine war, including troop movements.

The person interviewed said Teixeira began posting the classified information as blocks of text, which he allegedly transcribed at work. But in January 2023, after expressing concern that he might be caught, the airman started to take the documents home, where he photographed and then posted them to the server.

One of the documents Teixeira allegedly posted detailed the status of the war in Ukraine, including troop movements on a particular date, information Lueckenhoff noted was gathered through classified sources and methods and could cause “exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”

Pentagon document leak How Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old guard, leaked documents from deep inside the Pentagon

Here's how the FBI found Teixeira.

The FBI obtained the account and subscriber information for the server’s administrator — which turned out to be Teixeira — from the company this week, Lueckenhoff wrote, adding that a member of the server group confirmed Teixeira was the person posting the documents using a photo from the Registry of Motor Vehicles.

Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in September 2019, was first granted top-secret security clearance in 2021, according to Lueckenhoff’s affidavit. 

As of February, he was in a position that required top-secret security clearance. In order to be granted clearance, Teixeira would have had to sign a lifetime binding non-disclosure agreement where he would have had to acknowledge that the unauthorized disclosure of classified information could result in criminal charges, according to the criminal complaint.

“There is probable cause to believe that Teixeira improperly and unlawfully retained and transmitted national defense information classified at the TS//SCI level to persons not authorized to receive information,” according to Lueckenhoff. 

By April 6, Teixeira was on the lookout for news of a leak, according to Lueckenhoff’s affidavit, which said he used his government computer that day to search classified intelligence reporting for the word “leak.”

Earlier this month several news outlets began reporting that highly classified documents — some related to the war in Ukraine — had been posted on the internet.

AG Garland: ‘Not just about taking home documents’

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday the Pentagon documents leak is “not just about taking home documents.”

“This is about the transmission — both the unlawful retention and the transmission of the documents,” he said during a Department of Justice press conference Friday "…There are very serious penalties associated with that.”

Garland said individuals who sign agreements to receive classified documents acknowledge how important sharing classified information is to national security.

"We intend to send that message — how important it is to our national security,” he said.

Leaked Pentagon documents How did the FBI track down Jack Teixeira, who is charged with classified documents leak?

How did President Biden react to the leaker’s arrest?

President Joe Biden, who is wrapping up a three-day trip to Ireland, praised the “rapid action” by law enforcement and said he’s trying to prevent such leaks from happening again.

“While we are still determining the validity of those documents, I have directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further secure and limit distribution of sensitive information, and our national security team is closely coordinating with our partners and allies,” Biden said in a statement.

On Thursday, Teixeira was arrested at his home in Dighton. 

Teixeira will be represented by a court-appointed attorney, Hennessy said on Friday. The prosecutor listed on the criminal complaint and present at Friday’s appearance was Nadine Pellegrini.

“Love you, Jack,” a man clad in a plaid button-down shirt seated in the front row called out as Teixeira, again in handcuffs, was escorted out of the courtroom on Friday. 

Teixeira replied in a voice too faint to make out.

Contact Jeannette Hinkle at jhinkle@capecodonline.com.

Hinkle reported from U.S. District Court in Boston. USA Today material was used in this report.

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