US: 21-year-old Air National guardsman Jack Teixeira suspect in classified documents leak case, says report

A 21-year-old Air National guardsman has been identified as the person behind theleak of classified USgovernment documents. The person has been identified as Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, two law enforcement officials said Thursday,said an NBCNews report.He is likely to be arrested later the same day.

Earlier today, US President Joe Biden, who is on a three-day visit of Ireland, saidthat investigators are close to finding the source of the leak of highly classified intelligence documents. US has said that the sensitive leak poses a major security risk for the country and is believed to be the most serious security breach in a decade.

A formal criminal probe was opened by the Department of Justice last week after the matter was referred by the Pentagon. The damage done by the release is being assessed by Pentagon.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Reporters in Dublin asked Biden for an update on the leak, to which he said, "I can't (say) right now, there's a full-blown investigation going on, as you know with the intelligence community and the justice department, they're getting close - I don't have the answers."

He added that even though he is "concerned" that confidential documents were leaked, nothing about the records that he is aware of could have "great consequences."

"I'm not concerned about the leak, I'm concerned that it happened but there is nothing contemporaneous that I'm aware of."

Also Read | Secret documents were leaked by a '20-something' man who worked at a 'military base': Report

Earlier on Wednesday, Washington Post said in a report that the person who leaked the documents is a gun enthusiast in his 20s who worked on a military base. The documents were posted by him in a chatroom formed by two dozen other boys and men on Discord, an instant messaging platform popular with gamers. The members of this group know him as OG and told Washington Post that he used to post documents containing strange acronyms and jargon which not many paid attention to.

The Post based its report, which did not name the person, on interviews with two members of the Discord chat group.

Discord says that it is cooperating with the probe.

(With inputs from agencies)

WATCH WION LIVE HERE

You can now write for wionews.com and be a part of the community. Share your stories and opinions with us here.