Massachusetts National Guard soldier Jack Teixeira, arrested in 2023 for leaking hundreds of Pentagon documents classified as top secret on social media, pleaded guilty this Monday to six counts of appropriation and dissemination of information that affects national security , after reaching an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office. The sentence will be announced on September 27.
The agreement between the defendant and prosecutors, presented this Monday in a Boston court, indicates that Teixeira, 22, faces a minimum sentence of eleven years in prison. The prosecution demands the maximum sentence, 16 years and eight months, and the soldier has indicated that he will not appeal against any sentence that gives him less prison time than what the Prosecutor's Office requests. In turn, the public ministry agrees not to charge him with other charges under the Anti-Espionage Law. If an agreement had not been reached, the former soldier would have faced 25 years in prison.
The document also reveals that Teixeira has cooperated and agreed to be questioned by representatives of the intelligence services and the Department of Defense, as well as to hand over classified documents that he has in his possession or that he knows where they are located. .
Teixeira had been in the custody of the authorities since his arrest in April last year, days after a serious leak on social media of military secrets, including troop positions in Ukraine, came to light. The publication of this secret data is considered the most serious since the attack by Wikileaks in 2010 on documents from the Iraq war. According to the Department of Defense, he continues to be part of the armed forces, although he is suspended with pay, so he could still face a military trial in the case.
The arrest of the young soldier sparked a strong debate about how it had been possible that a mere soldier, in charge of maintaining computer systems at an air base in Massachusetts, could have received permission to access such high-level classified information. Especially when, the Prosecutor's Office argued, Teixeira had a history of violent and racist statements, and an obsession with firearms. The young man, who kept what the prosecution considered an arsenal, began searching for and keeping secret documents in January 2022, which he distributed to a closed group of his acquaintances on the social network Discord. Over time, these friends in turn shared this information on other networks.
During Monday's hearing, Teixeira appeared in court dressed in the inmates' orange jumpsuit and with a rosary around his neck, handcuffed and handcuffed. Upon entering, he smiled and nodded to his family in the audience.
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When Judge Indira Talwani asked him if he understood the charges against him, the soldier responded “yes, your honor.” “Do you understand that if I accept his statement he will be considered guilty of these charges?” the magistrate insisted. “Yes, your honor.”
After the meeting, the young soldier's lawyer, Michael Bachrach, described his client as “very young,” whose “youth played a significant role in his behavior.” “We believe that we will be able to establish substantial mitigating circumstances to justify why a sentence of no more than eleven years would be reasonable and fair in this case,” he added, according to the Boston Globe. His client is “significantly remorseful” and “accepts full responsibility for his conduct.”
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