It is believed that Jack Teixeira, the former Air National guardsman accused of disclosing sensitive military information online, will enter a guilty plea. In a move submitted to a federal court in Boston on Thursday, prosecutors requested a new plea hearing to be held the following week.
Nearly a year has passed since Teixeira was detained and accused of unlawfully retaining and transmitting material related to national defense. At first, he entered a plea of not guilty to the accusations.
Teixiera was arrested in April after sharing highly confidential military papers concerning the conflict in Ukraine along with additional national security concerns on the social media platform Discord. He was charged in June 2023 by a federal grand jury in Boston.
What the allegations against Teixiera are:
Teixeira had been employed by the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, from May 2022 till his arrest, said the criminal documents. He worked for the National Guard as a cyber transportation systems journeyman, which is comparable to a data technology professional.
His unit supplies global intelligence for homeland security and war assistance. Based on the government lawsuit, Teixeira could’ve signed a “lifelong binding non-disclosure agreement” indicating that leaking protected material may result in criminal penalties, had he been given a “top secret security certification” in 2021.
Court filings state that as early as, a social media account purported to be Teixeira started posting classified material in “sections of text” on a network that was later identified as Discord.
According to the FBI lawsuit, the original intent behind disclosing classified material was to “deal with geopolitical affairs and present and historical wars.”
However, the internet user started uploading pictures of what looked to be official paperwork with classification marks from the US government in January. The condition of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, involving troop movements on a certain date, was one of the documents that was photographed.