By Alexander Smith - NBC News
The Air National Guard member accused of one of the most high-profile intelligence leaks in recent years was repeatedly warned by his superiors about his handling of classified information, prosecutors said Wednesday, alleging he may have shared sensitive secrets with people outside the United States.
Justice Department lawyers filed the documents with the court urging the judge to keep Jack Teixeira behind bars before his trial, with a second hearing on the issue scheduled for Friday.
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Teixeira, 21, a first-class airman stationed in the 102nd Intelligence Wing, is accused of leaking secret Pentagon documents through Discord, a social media platform used primarily by online gamers. The case has sparked international fury and raised questions about the United States' ability to protect its secrets.
Teixeira, who has not pleaded guilty, was arrested on April 13 and, if convicted, could face up to 25 years in prison, according to previous prosecution briefs.
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In September, six months before his arrest, Teixeira was seen "taking notes on classified intelligence information" before putting them in his pocket, according to an Air Force memo drafted at the time, presented to the court by prosecutors on Wednesday.
Teixeira's superiors asked him if he intended to share the notes, before telling him in a meeting to "not take notes in any form on classified intelligence information," according to the memo.
A month later, another Air Force memo claimed the airman had failed to do so, "potentially ignoring the cease and desist order to delve into intelligence" when he asked "very specific questions" during an internal briefing. He was told to focus on his work.
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Finally, in February, a colleague saw Teixeira operating a machine connected to the Defense Department's Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System, its internal system for sharing confidential information, according to a third Air Force memo. He was seen "viewing content that was not related to his primary duty" and that was instead "related to the field of intelligence," it said.
Prosecutors have previously called the defendant a "serious flight risk" and warned that a "foreign adversary" could try to help him escape the United States and give him safe haven.
Last month, a federal judge refused to immediately release him but did not rule on the matter.
This artist's portrait shows Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira on April 14, 2023, in federal court in Boston.Margaret Small/AP
Teixeira's lawyers filed their own papers Wednesday, providing a list of eight defendants implicated in other Espionage Act cases in which courts have approved their provisional release.
Teixeira should not be compared to Edward Snowden, the exiled American who stole classified information from the National Security Agency, as prosecutors have tried to do, the defense team said. Snowden "fled the country" before his arrest and was already in China at the time of his leak, he said, having "orchestrated a coordinated plan to seek asylum in other countries," he said.
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The defence has also said there is no allegation that he intended for the documents to be widely distributed.
In response, the prosecution said there were 150 users on the server where Teixeira allegedly shared his information, and that "you may now have many more users actively seeking access to classified information," its memo said.
"Among the individuals with whom the defendant shared government information are a number of individuals who claimed to reside in other countries and who logged into the social media platform using foreign IP addresses."
In the messages, Teixeira boasted about the scope of the information he had access to, writing, "The information I give here is less than half of what is available," prosecutors said. He also acknowledged that he wasn't supposed to share the information, according to prosecutors, writing in another message, "Everything I've told you I'm not supposed to do," according to the Justice Department filing.
Teixeira is charged with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials, according to court records. Prosecutors have called this "incredibly broad and damaging dissemination of classified national defense information" that could be used by U.S. adversaries against him.
In another brief filed late last month, prosecutors claimed that Teixeira: had a history of violent and racist comments — including social media posts about his desire to carry out a mass shooting; kept "an arsenal of weapons" and tactical equipment in his home; And he was trying to thwart federal investigators by apparently destroying evidence.
