By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) – Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who has pleaded guilty in federal court to a massive leak of classified U.S. national security documents online, will face a court-martial on charges that he also violated military laws.
Teixeira, 22, will face a trial on military charges that he obstructed justice following the discovery of one of the largest leaks of classified documents in years and failed to obey a lawful order, a U.S. Air Force spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Those charges were officially referred to trial on July 2, the spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Brian Wagner, said in a statement. The trial, to take place at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts, has yet to be scheduled, Wagner said.
The referral followed proceedings in May in which Air Force prosecutors urged a hearing officer, Lieutenant Colonel Michael Raming, to make a recommendation to a more senior officer that Teixeira face a trial by general court-martial.
The Air Force in May said it had decided to pursue military charges against Teixeira after he pleaded guilty in March to separate, earlier charges brought by the U.S. Justice Department.
Defense counsel for Teixeira did not immediately respond to a request for comment. His lawyers argued in May that the charges violate Teixeira’s right to not be prosecuted twice for the same offense.
Teixeira was arrested in April 2023 after being accused of carrying out one of the most serious U.S. national security breaches in years while working as a cyber defense operations journeyman, or information technology support specialist.
Despite being a low-level airman, Teixeira held a top-secret security clearance, and starting in January 2022 began accessing hundreds of classified documents related to topics including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to prosecutors.
Teixeira shared classified information on the messaging app Discord in private servers – a kind of chat room – while bragging that he had access to “stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China,” according to prosecutors.
He faces at least 11 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 27 in the Justice Department’s case. Prosecutors plan to seek a sentence of more than 16 years.
Air Force prosecutors have accused Teixeira of ignoring ordering from military superiors to cease his “deep dives” into classified information. They have said he also obstructed justice by disposing of an iPad, computer hard drive and iPhone after the leaks were uncovered and instructing people online to delete their correspondence with him.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston, Editing by Will Dunham and Alexia Garamfalvi)
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