After March trial, Pentagon leaker Teixeira arraigned on military charges

Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was charged on Friday with breaking military law by the U.S. Air Force. Teixeira is suspected of disclosing sensitive U.S. national security materials online. 22-year-old Teixeira made a brief appearance before a military judge at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts. He chose to postpone pleading guilty to accusations of obstructing justice and disobeying a court order until after his court-martial trial is expected to start on March 10.

After Teixeira had already entered a guilty plea in March to distinct charges in federal court brought by the U.S. Justice Department, the Air Force declared in May that it was investigating allegations that he had broken military law. Teixeira obstructed justice, according to Air Force prosecutors, by throwing away an iPad, computer hard drive, and iPhone after the leaks were discovered and giving someone instructions to erase messages Teixeira had written online. He also disregarded an order to stop accessing classified material unrelated to his job.

During the hearing on Friday, Military Judge Colonel Vicki Marcus announced that she would hear defense attorneys’ pre-trial petitions in November and January. They contend that Teixeira’s constitutional right to be exonerated of repeat prosecution for the same act was violated by the charges. Teixeira was detained in April 2013 when it was claimed by the authorities that, while employed as a journeyman in cyber defense operations, he had committed one of the biggest breaches of U.S. national security in recent memory.

In January 2022, Teixeira, a low-level airman, gained access to hundreds of sensitive documents about subjects such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to prosecutors, despite having a top-secret security clearance. According to prosecutors, Teixeira boasted that he had access to “stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran, and China” while sharing secret information on the messaging app Discord in private servers, which function similarly to chat rooms. When Teixeira is sentenced on November 12, the US Department of Justice intends to request a term longer than 16 years.