The Justice Department argued on Wednesday night time that Jack Teixeira, the accused Pentagon leaker, should stay in detention before he’s attempted on fees associated with his alleged illegal retention and transmission of nationwide protection and categorised paperwork.
In a detention memo filed with the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, prosecutors offered a number of the explanation why the 21-year-old member of the Air National Guard should now not be launched to the custody of his father before his trial. Teixeira’s detention listening to is ready to be hung on Thursday.
According to investigators, Teixeira tried to impede the investigation into his alleged leaks. The prosecutors’ memo contains samples of over 40,000 messages that Teixeira despatched on Discord, lots of that have been associated with the leaked paperwork.
In March, Teixeira presented information to customers in his staff at the immediate messaging and social platform Discord, in line with a talk discovered by way of investigators. The dialog confirmed that Teixeira advised others within the Discord staff to “delete all messages.”
When investigators arrived at his mom’s house in April, they discovered a pill, computer and Xbox smashed in his trash. They additionally discovered a gun locker the place a couple of guns have been saved “two feet” from his mattress, together with handguns, rifles, shotguns and high-capacity guns, in line with the submitting.
Teixeira was once suspended from highschool in 2018 after a classmate heard him speaking about guns and Molotov cocktails. While he claimed they have been references to a online game, he was once rejected for a firearms identity that very same yr as a result of the ones remarks. He implemented once more in 2019 however was once once more denied the allow. In 2020, he argued that his place of believe with the U.S. executive certified him to own a gun.
Teixeira additionally allegedly posted violent rhetoric on-line, together with a message through which he mentioned he would “kill a [expletive] ton of people” as a result of it will be “culling the weak minded.”
The Justice Department famous that Teixeira faces 25 years in jail and doubtlessly extra, hinting that he might face further fees. Prosecutors argue that the long possible most sentence may make him a vital flight possibility, and the worth of the information he acquired — in addition to his low present web price of about $19,000 — may make him at risk of provides from nations unfriendly to the U.S.
“He accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States,” the memo mentioned.
If launched, Teixeira may pose an excellent larger risk now that his identification is understood, in line with the Justice Department. “Those same adversaries have every incentive to contact the Defendant, to seek additional information he may have physical access to or knowledge of, and to provide him with the means to help him flee the country in return for that information.”
According to the federal government’s memo, starting in February 2022, Teixeira had get right of entry to to “hundreds of classified documents containing national defense information that had no bearing on his role as essentially an information technology (“IT”) support specialist.”
The investigators say that within the Discord staff, Teixeira stated on a couple of events that he posted categorised subject material or even requested different contributors what they sought after him to post. In March, he allegedly informed the gang he would now not proportion categorised fabrics, and in April, he re-emerged with a distinct username, encouraging others to delete messages.
The submitting additionally comprises a lot of agreements Teixeira signed about his activity on the Air National Guard, FBI affidavits, and images of his room.