Jack Teixeira, the former Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of leaking top-secret Pentagon documents, is expected to plead guilty in a Boston court next week, according to newly filed court papers.
Federal prosecutors asked the judge to schedule a Rule 11 hearing—a proceeding where plea changes are discussed—court papers (pdf) show. The hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. on March 4 in Boston’s federal courthouse.
No other details were immediately available. The Massachusetts U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment further.
An attorney for Mr. Teixeira didn’t immediately return a phone message.
Mr. Teixeira, 22, was arrested in April last year at a home in southern Massachusetts, roughly 18 miles east of Providence, Rhode Island, following a Department of Justice (DOJ) probe into a leak of highly classified materials on the messaging apps Discord and Telegram, as well as the 4chan website.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Teixeira, who joined the Air National Guard in September 2019 and held a high-security clearance, had been sharing top-secret documents online for months, resulting in one of the most serious U.S. national security breaches in recent years.
The leaked documents contained highly classified information regarding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including a recent battle map from the Donetsk area in eastern Ukraine, as well as information on China, and Israel, according to officials.
His alleged actions raised concerns regarding how and why a junior-level airman could access such top-secret documents, prompting the Pentagon to implement additional measures to safeguard against national security leaks.
Leaked Documents ‘Shared Online for Months’
Authorities said Mr. Teixeira was a junior airman with the Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, and worked as a cyber transport systems journeyman, meaning he was an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks, including their cabling and hubs.
He began sharing military secrets with other Discord users around January 2023, and was aware that their disclosure could potentially harm the United States or benefit a foreign adversary, prosecutors said. He shared the sensitive information by both writing it down and posting it on the platform, as well as by sharing images of the classified documents, officials said.
Mr. Teixeira was indicted by a federal grand jury in Massachusetts in June last year on six felony counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to national defense, each carrying a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
His lawyers urged U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to consider releasing him as he awaits trial, pointing to the pretrial release of former President Donald Trump and others charged in similar high-profile cases involving classified documents. They also noted Mr. Teixeira has no criminal history.
However, Judge Talwani, in denying his pretrial release last year, said, “No set of release conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community, or prevent destruction of evidence.”
Mr. Teixeira is widely expected to plead guilty in court next week. It is still not clear what could have motivated Mr. Teixeira to allegedly leak the documents online and authorities have provided few details about a possible motive.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
