A court hearing scheduled for Wednesday for the young soldier arrested and charged with distributing a series of confidential American documents on the war in Ukraine has been postponed to a later date, noted an AFP journalist.
Jack Teixeira, 21, who is on remand, briefly appeared in Boston federal court to waive his right to a preliminary appearance.
The judge in charge of the case also accepted a request from his defense to better prepare a hearing on his pre-trial detention. No date has been set but the defense has asked for a delay of fifteen days.
Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guard recruit, stationed at a base on Cape Cod, south of Boston (northeast), was arrested Thursday and charged the next day by federal justice, suspected of being at the origin of the leak of a series of confidential American documents on the war in Ukraine, which put Washington in the embarrassment.
Hired in September 2019, with missions as a computer and communications specialist, he would have taken advantage of his position, and his “top secret” security clearance, to have access to the documents and then share them with a private group on the Discord social network.
The confidential documents, some of which later circulated on Twitter and Telegram among others, reveal in particular US intelligence concerns about the viability of a Ukrainian counter-offensive against Russian forces.
They also suggest that Washington collect intelligence on its closest allies, including Israel and South Korea.
The real motivations of Jack Teixeira remain to be clarified, but the portrait drawn up in the American media by people who know him portrays him more as a young man seeking to impress his friends than as a whistleblower determined to cause a scandal.
He was charged with “unauthorized retention and transmission of information relating to national defense”, and “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials”.
04/19/2023 19:35:04 – Boston (United States) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
