The 21-year-old Massachusetts man who has been accused of leaking classified U.S. documents on the internet appeared in federal court in Boston on Friday morning, as new details were revealed about the case.
Jack Teixeira, guardsman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard's intelligence wing, was formally charged with possessing unclassified documents pertaining to national security and possessing national defense materials, and was ordered detained ahead of a detention hearing on Wednesday.
The charges carry a total of up to 15 years imprisonment. Teixeira didn't enter a plea, since the hearing was an initial appearance.
Teixeira was brought into the courtroom wearing handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit. Several family members were present in the front row, and he exchanged an "I love you" with them as he entered court.
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President Joe Biden issued a statement Friday commending law enforcement's quick investigation and response to the leak and noting he's ordered new restrictions on sensitive government information.
"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.
Documents filed in the federal court system Friday offered new information into the federal investigation. (Read one of the documents below.) An FBI agent involved in the investigation believes Teixeira "willfully retained and transmitted classified national defense information to a person not entitled to receive it" in Massachusetts and elsewhere, according to an affidavit filed in federal court.
FBI agents tracked Teixeira down, according to the document, through the social media service where he's suspected of posting images of top secret documents showing U.S. intelligence on the Russian invasion of Ukraine and on American allies. According to NBC News, the server was on the social media platform Discord, and the documents revealed information about the war in Ukraine, including secret assessments of Ukraine’s combat power, and details of America’s spying effort on Russia’s war efforts.
"Certain of the images appear to depict Government Information that was used to inform senior military and civilian government officials during briefings at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia," according to the affidavit.
On Monday, FBI agents interviewed a person who was on the social media platform server where the classified information appeared, the affidavit said. Initially, the person later identified as Teixeira, an administrator of the server, posted the information as text, but starting in January, began posting images showing apparently classified documents.
The server was dedicated to talking about geopolitics and wars, according to the user who spoke with the FBI. He told agents that he'd once had a video call with the server's administrator, who "explained that he had become concerned that he may be discovered making the transcriptions of text in the workplace, so he began taking the documents to his residence and photographing them," the FBI affidavit said.
By Wednesday, the FBI had gotten access to records related to the server, giving them Teixeira's name and address in North Dighton, Massachusetts, which matched his employment information with the Air National Guard.
Teixeira was taken into custody on Thursday without incident at the home in Dighton, a small town in Bristol County located southwest of Taunton.
Teixeira, who’s assigned to Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, is accused of posting classified military secrets in a gaming chat room online.
The court documents didn't list exactly when the documents were posted.
In a statement, the FBI said Teixeira betrayed the country and put national security at risk.
Neighbors in Dighton were shocked as authorities swarmed the rural area on Thursday.
"It is overwhelming, my heart is racing," Dighton resident Harris Ntabakos said. "I'm just like, what is going on? My friend said, 'Don't worry, it is not like an active shooter or anything, you can go outside.'"
Eddy Souza went to high school with Teixeira, and said he didn't believe he was trying to be malicious.
"Everyone's innocent until proven guilty," said Souza. "That's the great thing about this country. I don't think he's really doing anything malicious, I think he's probably just on Discord messing around with his friends."
It was not immediately clear if Teixeira had a lawyer who could speak on his behalf. A phone message left at a number believed to belong to his mother was not immediately returned.
NBC10 Boston's Michael Rosenfield contributed to this report.
