Members of law enforcement assemble on a road, Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Dighton, Mass., near where FBI agents converged on the home of a Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has emerged as a main person of interest in the disclosure of highly classified military documents on the Ukraine. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
(NewsNation) — Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old National Guard member, has been arraigned on two charges of leaking classified documents.
Teixeira was charged with unauthorized detention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials. He has been detained, with a detention hearing set for Wednesday.
Court documents show the FBI used Discord billing records to identify Teixeira. Discord, a chat server popular with gamers, was where sources say Teixeira first shared the documents in a private group. In the documents, investigators reveal Teixeira began photographing documents after expressing concern to other group members that he might be discovered transcribing the text at work.
In addition, court documents say Teixeira searched for the word “leak” in classified materials using his government-provided computer, giving investigators reason to believe he was looking for information on what the intelligence community knew about the leaker.
Teixeira was arrested on Thursday after a Department of Justice investigation into who was behind the release of photographs of classified materials that circulated on social media sites. The Massachusetts Air National Guard member specialized in intelligence. Teixeira was taken into custody without incident.
The documents revealed information on the war in Ukraine, including the dire state of Ukraine’s air defense. Other national security information in the documents included information the Middle East and China and details on U.S. intelligence operations in Russia. The documents also indicated the U.S. is spying on allies like South Korea and Israel.
Lawmakers immediately pressed the Pentagon on how such sensitive information could be leaked. The photographs of the documents show crease lines from being folded, suspected to be a result of the leaker pocketing the materials to later share.
The photographs of the material were first posted on a private Discord server. The Associated Press stories the leaker was identified as “the O.G.” by a member of the online chat group. Known as Thug Shaker Central, the group drew roughly two dozen enthusiasts who talked about their favorite types of guns and also shared memes and jokes, some of them racist. The group also held a running discussion on wars that included talk of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In that discussion, “the O.G.” would for months post material that he said was classified — originally typing it out with his own notations, then a few months ago switching to posting images of folded-up papers because he felt his writings weren’t being taken seriously, said the member, who declined to share his name with AP.
It was not immediately clear how Teixeira would have had access to the records, but a Defense Department official told The Associated Press on Thursday that as an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks, the young Guardsman would have had a higher level of security clearance.
Teixeira reportedly shared classified information on the Discord server for years before the documents were circulated on other social media sites, including Twitter.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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