Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison for disclosing confidential files on Discord
Former Massachusetts Air National Guard aviator Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison last Tuesday (12.Nov.2024). He is accused of leaking military documents through the platform.
District Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Teixeira after he admitted guilt to 6 counts of intentional retention and transmission of confidential national defense information. The case is considered a serious violation of the country’s Espionage Law.
Since April 2023, Teixeira has been in custody due to the leak of documents to a group on Discord. In addition to prison, he agreed to a deal to resolve additional military charges, including obstruction of justice.
Teixeira is a former airman at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod. Since January 2022, he has accessed and released hundreds of documents on sensitive topics, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Prosecutors pointed out that Teixeira boasted on Discord that he had information about several countries. In 2022, he was warned twice for mishandling confidential information. Teixeira’s defense argued that he did not intend to harm the country, but rather to share knowledge about world events with friends online.
“I wanted to know as much as possible about it because I thought it was probably the biggest event or thing that happened in the history of my generation.”declared Teixeira in an interrogation.
