Jack Teixeira, who’s accused of leaking highly classified US government intelligence and other documents on social media, has pleaded guilty before a federal district court judge in Boston on Monday (Mar 4), local media reported.
The news agency AFP reported that Teixeira, who is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has agreed to plead guilty to all six counts of willful retention and dissemination of national defence information.
The 22-year-old Teixeira pleaded guilty under a deal in which he accepted a roughly 16-year imprisonment in return for prosecutors dropping more serious espionage charges.
The deal states that he will be sentenced to up to 16 years and eight months in prison, pay a $50,000 fine, and assist intelligence agents in determining the scope and impact of his revelations.
He was arrested in April for allegedly orchestrating the most damaging leak of US classified documents in a decade, some of which concerned the war in Ukraine.
He faces no espionage charges under the Espionage Act, otherwise he could have been imprisoned for life.
During the hearing, he was asked by the presiding judge if he had any issues with the evidence, and Teixeira responded no. He was again asked if he knew the materials were classified, and he said, “Yes, your honour.”
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Teixeira iwas suspected of releasing the documents, some of which date as recently as early March 2023, to a private chat group on the social media platform Discord. Some of the files later appeared on other sites, including Twitter, 4Chan and Telegram.
When the trove of highly classified military and intelligence documents appeared online, it became an embarrassment and a headache for America as it released details of secret information linked to the Russia-Ukraine war, Israel’s spy agency Mossad, South Korea, and more.
The documents labelled as “Secret” and “Top Secret” started circulating online in March and were on social media platforms such as Twitter, Telegram, Discord, and more. The leak was first reported by The New York Times, but there’s a possibility that it could have started as early as January. There were indications that some of the documents could have been altered.
(With inputs from agencies)
