Jack Teixeira, a young American soldier arrested in 2023 for a leak of classified defense documents, notably on the war in Ukraine, pleaded guilty on Monday March 4, sealing an agreement for sixteen years in prison against the dropping of the charges. more serious for espionage.
Jack Teixeira, 22, appeared in federal court in Boston wearing an orange inmate outfit. He admitted to disseminating information relating to American national defense, but prosecutors will not charge him with espionage, which could have earned him life imprisonment.
“Mr. Teixeira coldly set aside the national security of the United States and betrayed his solemn oath to defend his country and the trust of the American people he was sworn to protect,” said, in a statement from the US Department of Defense. justice his deputy minister, Matthew Olsen.
By reaching a legal agreement, the Air Force National Guard recruit will escape a criminal trial but will be sentenced by a judge to sixteen years and eight months in prison, 50,000 dollars (approximately 46,000 euros) fine and will have to help intelligence officials understand how the leak was possible.
Embarrassment for Washington
Jack Teixeira had so far pleaded not guilty, after being indicted in particular by a federal grand jury – a jury of citizens who participate in the investigation phase – with six counts of “voluntary preservation and transmission of information relating to national defense”, each punishable by a sentence of up to ten years in prison. The federal police (FBI) arrested him on April 13 outside his family home in Dighton, south of Boston, a few days after the revelations of these leaks in the American press.
Hired as a computer and communications specialist at a military base on Cape Cod, near this historic New England city, Jack Teixeira published confidential information on a discussion group on the Discord platform, which subsequently circulated on other social networks. The secret documents had revealed US intelligence concerns about the viability of a Ukrainian counter-offensive. They also implied that Washington was collecting intelligence on its closest partners, notably Israel and South Korea.
The affair embarrassed Washington and raised questions about possible security breaches, even though the young soldier had a secret defense clearance, allowing him to access this sensitive information, despite his modest rank.
Minister Olsen stressed that Mr. Teixeira’s “illegal revelations” “affected [US] intelligence capabilities, compromised [their] sources and methods, and blinded the United States to threats from hostile nations and groups.” terrorists.”
A new business
Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice announced, Monday, the arrest on Saturday of a civilian employee of the Air Force assigned to the headquarters of the Strategic Nuclear Weapons Command (Stratcom) at the Offutt base, in Nebraska, for disclosing classified information about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
David Franklin Slater, 63, a former Army lieutenant colonel, is accused of having, between February and April 2022, transmitted classified information “via the messaging service of a foreign dating site to his accomplice, who claimed to be a woman living in Ukraine,” including “military targets and Russian military capabilities regarding the invasion of Ukraine,” according to a statement. She called him in her messages her “secret informant love”, underlines the ministry.
He will be presented to a judge on Tuesday and faces up to ten years in prison and a fine of 250,000 dollars (approximately 230,000 euros) per count of disclosure of information relating to national defense, according to the same source.
