Arrested Thursday, Jack Teixeira was charged Friday by federal justice in the United States. The 21-year-old soldier is suspected of being behind the leak of a series of confidential American documents on the war in Ukraine, which embarrasses Washington. The Air National Guard recruit was charged with “unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information,” and “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials,” according to a court document.
Facts respectively punishable by ten and five years in prison. Justice Minister Merrick Garland has promised to seek “very heavy sentences”. The young man, presented before a federal court in Boston wearing a beige prisoner jumpsuit, was remanded in custody pending a new hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Committed since 2019
The day after his arrest, all eyes were on this young soldier, who allegedly took advantage of his position to distribute confidential and sensitive documents on operations in Ukraine to a private group on the Discord social network. Since Thursday, the aerial images of his arrest in Dighton, a small rural town in Massachusetts, or his photo in uniform, looking a little frail, holding a cell phone in front of him, have been looping.
The National Guard said Jack Teixeira enlisted in September 2019, worked as a computer and communications specialist and achieved the rank of first class enlisted, the third lowest in the hierarchy. Jack Teixeira had had a “top secret” security clearance since 2021, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent in support of the prosecution.