Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira to face military court martial charges

CNN —

Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who in March pleaded guilty in a civilian court to willfully retaining and leaking classified intelligence, is now facing charges in military court, the Air Force announced.

Teixeira — who was arrested last April after allegedly sharing classified intelligence on the social media platform Discord — is being charged with disobeying a direct order and obstructing justice under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, an Air Force spokesperson said. The Air Force requested the new charges against Teixeira in May and the charges were officially referred on July 2.

The charges allege that Teixeira intentionally disobeyed an order telling him to “cease and desist” from accessing information not pertaining to his duties as a cyber systems journeyman in the Air Force National Guard.

CNN has previously reported that three internal Air Force memos revealed multiple instances in which his leadership observed and warned that he was inappropriately accessing classified information.

The charges also say that between March 1, 2023, and April 13, 2023, Teixeira disposed “of an iPad, computer hard drive, and cell phone, with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself,” and on April 7, 2023, directed another person to “to delete Discord messages” sent by himself, the Air Force spokesperson said on Thursday.

Teixeira was arrested on April 14 last year and charged under the Espionage Act. The documents shared by Teixeira online included a wide range of classified information, including internal assessments of the Russia-Ukraine war and a document discussing a “plot by a foreign adversary to targeted United States forces abroad.”

CNN