The Air National Guardsman who was arrested last year for sharing hundreds of top secret and classified documents to online chatrooms was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Nov. 12 after pleading guilty this March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defense.
Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira was a cyber transport systems journeyman at the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 102nd Intelligence Wing when he was arrested by the FBI on April 13, 2023. Over the past year, he had shared a trove of classified documents on the war in Ukraine, the Indo-Pacific and Middle East military theaters, and other sensitive subjects to a server on the online social platform Discord.
“Teixeira told the FBI he did this to boost his ego, impress his anonymous friends, and set the record straight about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” FBI Special Agent Jodi Cohen told reporters at a press conference on Nov. 12.
Joshua Levy, the acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said that the government determined the information Teixeira leaked could cause “exceptionally grave damage to the United States.” The documents included information about troop movements and supplies in Ukraine and “a plot to kill Americans serving overseas by a foreign adversary,” he said.
“This conduct caused immediate operational damage and long-term enduring damage to our relationships with our allies [and] to our ability to gather information by revealing intelligence-gathering methods,” Levy added. “We won’t know the full extent of Jack Teixeira’s damage for several years.”
After Teixeira was arrested, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers the department would review its security practices, conduct an Air Force Inspector General probe of the 102nd Intelligence Wing, and hold a stand-down for Airmen and Guardians for review their security practices and conduct training if needed.
“There is a full-court press going on about this,” Kendall told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee. “We are all disturbed about it, and we are working very, very hard to get to the bottom of it and take corrective action.”
A 45-day military-wide review found that the “overwhelming majority” of service members with access to classified information are trustworthy, but the Defense Department still needs to improve how it handles classified information by clarifying its regulations.
The 102nd Intelligence Wing was sidelined and not allowed to resume its mission until this May. The Air Force started disciplinary and administrative actions against 15 Airmen after an investigation found that Teixeira’s actions were enabled by a “lack of supervision.” The commander of the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron and an administrative commander at Otis Air National Guard Base were suspended last year.
In March, Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information. Each charge carried a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts, though the guilty plea likely played a role in reducing the sentence to 15 years total. Levy said the sentence will serve as a significant deterrence to would-be leakers.
“I expect that starting tomorrow, Jack Teixeira’s name will be mentioned when people are trained about the gravity of a top secret clearance and the consequences if you leak information,” he said.
The 22-year-old was regretful at the sentencing hearing.
“I wanted to say that I’m sorry for all of the harm that I’ve caused and wrought, to my friends, family and those overseas. I don’t think I can really sum up how contrite I am,” he said, according to the Washington Post. “I understand all of my responsibility and the consequences fall upon my shoulders.”
Teixeira is scheduled to face a military court-martial next spring.