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The US Air National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars after leaking Pentagon documents last year, a breach that has been widely regarded as one of the most prominent intelligence scandals in recent times.
Teixeira, aged 22, confessed in March to the intentional retention and transmission of sensitive national defense information.
While stationed at an Air National Guard base, Teixeira gathered sensitive materials, including maps, satellite images, and intelligence on US allies, which he then uploaded to an online platform favored by gamers.
Among the sensitive documents he revealed was classified information concerning the war in Ukraine.The prosecution called for a 16-and-a-half-year prison term for Teixeira, whereas his defense team pushed for a sentence of 11 years before US District Court Judge Indira Talwani.
In their request for a lenient sentence, Teixeira’s lawyers argued in court filings that the airman was the target of bullying while in high school and his military unit, and that he had suffered from isolation.
Meanwhile, prosecutors argued for a longer prison term, saying that the airman had “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history”.
“Teixeira understood the risk to his country and did it anyways,” prosecutors told Judge Talwani on Tuesday.
Passing sentence, Judge Talwani said to Teixeira: “You are young and you have a future ahead of you, but it is such a serious crime.”
Before the court, Teixeira offered an apology, fully aware that the burden of responsibility and its consequences fell squarely on his shoulders, as reported from inside the Boston courtroom.
Teixeira first got involved with a small group of military and gun enthusiasts on a Discord server in late 2022. At first, the documents were kept within the chatroom, but before long, they were shared on wider public channels.
Eventually, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and military bloggers got hold of the documents, spreading them further.
Teixeira became a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard in 2019, a reserve unit of the US Air Force, and held top-secret security clearance as part of his role.
