More details emerge about accused leaker of classified Pentagon documents

Following the arrest and charging of suspected document leaker Jack Teixeira this week, more details have come out about the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman’s behavior before being found out; including a prescient high school yearbook quote.

As a member of the Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, Teixeira was confirmed to have had top-secret security clearance as a Cyber Transport Systems journeyman. That role had granted him the access to begin sharing details from, and ultimately images of, dozens of documents on the social media platform Discord that would later circulate the internet pertaining to American military actions abroad.

After speaking with a former classmate of 21-year-old Teixeira from Dighton-Rehoboth Regional High School, CNN reported that the young man formally charged in federal court Friday had chosen a motto before graduating that took on added weight.

“Actions speak louder than words,” the senior had written.

Previously it had been noted that Teixeira had followed in the footsteps of his stepfather Master Sgt. Thomas P. Dufault who had served in the same wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard before retiring four years earlier, and high school classmate John Powell had described the guardsman routinely carrying “around a textbook on military vehicles — tanks, planes, and submarines.”

He was “dead set on joining some branch of the military, even as a kid,” Powell had told CNN.

Now Teixeira is facing up to a combined 15 years after being charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified information or material.

The affidavit for the United States of America v. Jack Douglas Teixeira revealed that the suspect had allegedly used a government computer to begin looking for reports that contained the word “leak” shortly after news had begun to circulate.

“According to a second U.S. Government Agency, which can monitor certain searches conducted on its classified networks, on April 6, 2023, TEIXEIRA used his government computer to search classified intelligence reporting for the word ‘leak,'” the affidavit stated. “The first public reporting regarding the Government Information appeared on or around April 6, 2023.”

Teixeira Complaint by Abby Patkin

“He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course,” a member of the discord group Thug Shaker Central told The Washington Post of their impression of Teixeira. “These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind.”

Another suggested, “He got upset, and he said on multiple occasions, if you guys aren’t going to interact with them, I’m going to stop sending them.”

Teixeira’s next court appearance, a detention hearing, is scheduled for Wednesday and as he left the courthouse Friday led in cuffs by US Marshals, the young man was heard telling his father “I love you, Dad” in response to a call of “I love you, Jack!”

Kevin Haggerty

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