WORCESTER, Mass. — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking extremely labeled navy paperwork on a social media platform, pleaded not responsible Wednesday to federal felony expenses.
Teixeira, 21, entered the pleas throughout a listening to in Worcester’s federal court docket days after he was indicted by a grand jury on six counts of willful retention and transmission of nationwide protection info. Each depend is punishable by as much as 10 years in jail.
Handcuffed and carrying orange jail garb, Teixeira smiled at household seated within the gallery in the beginning of the listening to. He stood on the protection desk subsequent to his attorneys and leaned over to say “not guilty, your honor” into the microphone after the decide learn every depend. The decide additionally denied a protection request to rethink his detention order.
Teixeira, of North Dighton, has been behind bars since his April arrest on expenses stemming from probably the most consequential intelligence leak in years. A Justice of the Peace decide dominated final month that Teixeira should stay in jail whereas the case performs out, saying that releasing him would pose a danger that he would try and flee the nation or hinder justice.
The leak left the Biden administration scrambling to evaluate and include the harm among the many worldwide neighborhood and reassure allies that its secrets and techniques are protected with the U.S.
Teixeira’s legal professional has mentioned his consumer “will answer the charges” and “will be judged by his fellow citizens.” In pushing for his launch, Teixeira’s attorneys argued that the federal government isn’t alleging Teixeira ever supposed that the knowledge be extensively disseminated.
Teixeira’s household mentioned in an emailed assertion final month that they “remain committed as ever” to supporting him.
Teixeira is accused of sharing labeled navy paperwork about Russia’s battle in Ukraine and different delicate nationwide safety subjects on Discord, a social media platform widespread with individuals taking part in on-line video games. Investigators imagine he was the chief of an personal chat group known as Thug Shaker Central, the place fanatics shared jokes, talked about their favourite sorts of weapons and mentioned wars, together with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Authorities say Teixeira, who enlisted within the Air National Guard in 2019, started round January sharing navy secrets and techniques with different Discord customers – first by typing out labeled paperwork after which sharing images of recordsdata that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Teixeira labored as a a “cyber transport systems specialist,” basically an IT specialist chargeable for navy communications networks.
Prosecutors say he continued to leak authorities secrets and techniques even after he was warned by superiors about mishandling and improper viewing of labeled info. After being admonished by superiors final yr, he was once more seen in February viewing info not associated to the intelligence area, not his major obligation, based on inner Air National Guard memos filed in court docket.
Justice Department attorneys revealed in earlier court docket filings that Teixeira had a historical past of disturbing on-line remarks. He wrote in November that he would “kill a (expletive) ton of people” if he had his manner, as a result of it will be “culling the weak minded.” He additionally used his authorities pc in July to lookup mass shootings, looking phrases equivalent to “Mandalay Bay shooting” and “Uvalde,” prosecutors mentioned.
Authorities have supplied few particulars about an alleged attainable motive, however accounts of these within the on-line personal chat group the place the paperwork had been disclosed have depicted Teixeira as motivated extra by bravado than ideology.
Attorney General Merrick Garland mentioned in an announcement final week that Teixeira was entrusted with info “that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared.”
Content Source: www.washingtontimes.com