(CN) — Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira plans to change his plea on charges of violating federal espionage law, per a new federal court document filed Thursday.
FBI agents arrested Teixeira this past April on suspicion of leaking classified military documents on Discord, an online messaging forum popular with gamers. According to public court documents, the leaked material reportedly included intelligence assessments of the Russia-Ukraine war for review by Pentagon officials, covering topics such as troop movements, supply logistics and plans for military operations. They also included information on U.S. allies like South Korea and the UAE.
The government initially charged the then 21-year-old, who worked for the Massachusetts Air National Guard as a tech support staffer, on two counts: unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information, and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. A grand jury returned a more severe indictment in June, charging Teixeira with six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.
“As laid out in the indictment, Jack Teixeira was entrusted by the United States government with access to classified national defense information — including information that reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to national security if shared,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement this past June. “Teixeira is charged with sharing information with users on a social media platform he knew were not entitled to receive it. In doing so, he is alleged to have violated U.S. law and endangered our national security.”
Teixeira entered not guilty pleas on all six counts a week after the grand jury indicted him, but Thursday's filing indicates he wishes to change pleas. The document does not specify if Teixeira plans to change his pleas as to all six counts or only some of them. U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani set his plea change hearing for March 4, altering what was originally planned as a pretrial conference.
The suspected leak took place in the context of growing criticism of U.S. involvement in the Russia-Ukraine war, now in its third year, from both the right and left. The Discord server where prosecutors say Teixeira published the documents in early 2023, obtained using his military security clearance at Otis Air National Guard Base at Cape Cod, was a decidedly right-wing space for teenagers and young men known as Thug Shaker Central.
The name itself is a racist dogwhistle. According to a report by the independent investigative journalist group Bellingcat, server members like Teixeira would regularly share racist memes and discuss religion, guns, video games and music.
In a government motion to keep Teixeira in federal custody this past April, prosecutors also accused Teixeira of violent aspirations — highlighting an November 2022 social media post in which he said he would like to kill a “ton of people” because it would be “culling the weak minded.” U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge David Hennessy granted the motion last May.
From Thug Shaker Central the documents found their way to a separate Discord server dedicated to the video game Minecraft and another that served as the fan page for YouTuber Wow_Mao, who makes videos lampooning geopolitical and ethnic conflicts around the world.
"You don't need me to tell you how bad it is to leak secret war documents (even if you think it's funny)," the YouTuber said in an April 2023 video both denouncing the leaks and mocking the situation's absurdity.
The documents subsequently ended up on 4chan, Twitter, and Russian social media channels before catching the attention of mainstream U.S. media, specifically The New York Times, in April.
Despite changing his pleas, Teixeira faces potentially decades in prison for the leaks.
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