Pentagon leak: Jack Teixeira was warned repeatedly over his mishandling of classified information

Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard suspected of leaking highly classified military documents, was warned repeatedly over his mishandling of classified information. According to a report by the news agency Associated Press, Justice Department lawyers made this disclosure in a court filing on Wednesday urging the magistrate judge to keep Teixeira behind bars. The judge is expected to hear more arguments Friday on the prosecutors' detention request and issue a ruling.

Teixeria, 21, was arrested from his residence on April 13 and was charged with violating the Espionage Act. The documents about top national security issues shared in a chatroom on the social media platform Discord were believed to be the most serious security breach in the US since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010.

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Superiors raised concerns about Teixeria's handling of classified details

Texieria's superiors at the Massachusetts Air National Guard had earlier raised concerns internally on multiple occasions about his handling or viewing of classified information.

In their filing, the prosecutors told the judge that the 21-year-old continued leaking documents even after he was admonished by superiors on two separate occasions last year over “concerning actions” he took related to classified information.

A September 2022 memo from the Air National Guard 102nd Intelligence Wing that prosecutors filed in court said that Teixeria "had been observed taking notes on classified intelligence information". He was instructed to no longer take notes in any form on classified intelligence information.

Another memo filed next month (October 2022) said a superior was made aware that Teixeira was “potentially ignoring the cease-and-desist order on deep diving into intelligence information” given to him the month before. He attended a meeting and proceeded to ask very specific questions.

He was told again to focus on his job, not any “deep dives” into classified intelligence information.

And a third memo from February this year showed that the 21-year-old was again found viewing information “that was not related to his primary duty and was related to the intelligence field”.

Prosecutors said in their filing thatTeixeira continued to share information with his "online associates, defying these admonishments and taking further efforts to conceal his unlawful conduct," the Associated Press reported.

Release Teixeria to his father’s home: Lawyers

Meanwhile, Jack Teixeira's lawyers urged the judge to release him to his father's home while highlighting that the man did not flee when media outlets began publishing his name shortly before his arrest.

In their court filing, the lawyers said there had been many Espionage Act cases in which courts approved release or the government did not seek to keep the person behind bars during pretrial. They also said there is no allegation that Teixeira ever intended for documents to be distributed widely.

(With inputs from agencies)

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