(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old suspected leaker of classified US military intelligence papers, had a history of making “violent” threats and comments and owned multiple firearms, according to federal prosecutors.
Teixeira, an airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has allegedly leaked on social media, such as Discord and 4chan, hundreds of pages of classified documents of the US Department of Defense.
The leaks include information about Russia’s war in Ukraine, which may have forced the Ukrainians to change their plans for a major counteroffensive in the spring. However, there have been doubts that some of the papers were altered by Russian intelligence to reflect Moscow’s war propaganda goals.
During a court hearing in Worcester, Massachusetts, on Teixeira’s bail request on Thursday, Justice Department attorneys said the suspected leaker might still have access to classified US government papers.
The prosecution also argued that if released from prison, the defendant might escape with help from “hostile” nations.
The DOJ said further that Teixeira was “an ongoing risk” to America’s national security and should be kept in custody until his trial.
At the same time, the suspected leaker’s defense claimed he couldn’t access any more classified documents. It accused the Justice Department of exaggerating any threat to US national security he might present.
Teixeira, an IT specialist with the US Air National Guard, is suspected of committing the most significant leak of classified federal government papers since the WikiLeaks publications a decade ago.
The 21-year-old man was nabbed at his mother’s house earlier this month and has been charged with two felony counts, which carry a combined total of 15 years in prison.
Federal prosecutors revealed in a court document filed late Wednesday that in November, he posted on social media that he wanted to “kill a ton of people” since that would be “culling the weak-minded.”
According to the DOJ, Teixeira researched mass shootings online and asked another user what kind of rifle would be easy to use from the back of an SUV.
“[Teixeira owned] a virtual arsenal of weapons, including bolt-action rifles, rifles, AR and AK-style weapons, and a bazooka,” the prosecutors wrote, adding that he kept some of the firearms “just feet from his bed.”
The court filing revealed further that the airman got suspended from school in March 2018 after a classmate “overheard him make remarks about weapons, including Molotov cocktails, guns at the school, and racial threats.”
“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 document said, warning that Teixeira was “a serious flight risk.”
The defense has asked the judge to release the suspected leaker into his “father’s custody pending trial.”
“[The prosecution] engages in hyperbolic judgments and provides little more than speculation that a foreign adversary will seduce Mr. Teixeira and orchestrate his clandestine escape from the United States,” the suspect’s lawyers wrote.
A US airman accused of leaking top-secret documents had a history of making "violent" statements and owned numerous weapons, federal prosecutors alleged as a judge heard his request for bail Thursday. https://t.co/83kBc0pSiq
— NEWSMAX (@NEWSMAX) April 27, 2023
