Releasing Leak Suspect Poses National Security Risk, Feds Warn

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Federal governments want a judge to keep a member of the Air National Guard from Massachusetts in jail on Thursday. They believe he could still have access to important and secret military documents that he could share with others.

The United States Justice Department recently said that it would be dangerous to let Jack Teixeira (21 years old) leave jail when he is waiting for his trial. Investigators are still trying to find out if Jack has any copies of secret information, either on physical objects or online, including facts that have not been known publicly yet.

The prosecutors said that there’s no way to make sure the Defendant won’t tell more secrets that he still knows or has. They also added that what he has already done caused a really big harm to United States’ security, and he still has potential to do much more harm in the future.

On Thursday, there will be a special court hearing in Worcester, Massachusetts for Teixeira. He was arrested this month and is now in jail. His lawyers have suggested that he should stay at his father’s house instead of jail. As of Wednesday though, they haven’t filed the paperwork needed to make that happen yet.

Teixeira has been accused of breaking a law called the Espionage Act, which means he was not allowed to keep or share secret information related to national defense. He hasn’t yet said if he is guilty or innocent, and his lawyer didn’t talk to reporters after last week’s hearing.

Someone is being accused of sharing very important and confidential documents about huge national security issues in a discussion part of Discord – which was first used as a place for gamers to hang out. This leak shocked military people, caused an uproar around the world, and made people wonder how secure the US can keep its secrets.

The police said that Teixeira is dangerous because he owns guns and talks about violence and murder a lot on the platform where he supposedly shared documents. In February, they heard him talk about wanting to make a minivan into an “assassination van”.

Prosecutors said that Teixeira was suspended from high school when one of his classmates heard him talking about things like firebombs and other dangerous stuff, along with making some scary racial threats.

Prosecutors also claimed he was trying to erase any evidence after news outlets started reporting on the leaked documents. When they looked in a dumpster at his home, they found a broken laptop, tablet, and Xbox gaming console.

Last week, the hearing for Teixeira was supposed to happen but it got postponed due to the need of more time by his defense lawyers who wanted to figure out the request made by the government which is related to Teixeira’s jailing since April 13. On that day, Teixeira appeared in Boston’s court and agreed not to go through a preliminary hearing.

Some documents have been released recently with information about how the U.S. and NATO are helping Ukraine as well as what they think of other nations they’re working with. The documents even include updates on the fighting between Ukraine and Russia, including details like what equipment has been lost or is being sent to Ukraine from their allies.

The authorities have not told us why the leak happened. The people in the Discord group said it was probably done as a way of showing off and not to reveal secrets about the American military or change American policies.

The law enforcement agency continues looking into this matter and the US Army is also making sure that such information is kept safe so that nothing like this happens again.

The FBI got some of the information about Teixeira from Discord’s payments. He joined the Air National Guard in September 2019.

Teixeira was an IT specialist for the Air National Guard. His job was to make sure that military communications networks were secure and had the right protections in place. Because of this role, he was given a higher security clearance than most.

Investigators say that Teixeira was the head of a group on Discord (an online platform) called “Thug Shaker Central”, where everyone discussed their favorite guns, and joked around about wars. In December, somebody with a username linked to Teixeira started posting what looked like some confidential information.

On April 6th, the FBI noticed that Teixeira was searching for the word “leak” in a confidential system. This made them think he was trying to figure out who had shared secret information without permission.