Air Guardsman Jack Teixeira is sentenced to 15 years in prison for Discord leaks

The Air National Guardsman, who was arrested last year for leaking hundreds of top secret and classified documents to online chat rooms, was sentenced Nov. 12 to 15 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to six counts of intentional retention in March of this year and passing on secret information for national defense.

Airman 1st Class Jack Teixeira was a cyber transport systems journeyman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard's 102nd Intelligence Wing when he was arrested by the FBI on April 13, 2023. Last year, he shared a trove of secret documents about the war in Ukraine, the military theaters in the Indo-Pacific and the Middle East, and other sensitive topics on a server on the online social platform Discord.

“Teixeira told the FBI he did this to boost his ego, impress his anonymous friends and clarify the situation about Russia's invasion of Ukraine,” FBI Special Agent Jodi Cohen told reporters at a Nov. 12 news conference.

Joshua Levy, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, said the government had concluded that the information leaked by Teixeira could cause “extraordinarily serious harm to the United States.” The documents included information about troop movements and deliveries in Ukraine as well as “a conspiracy to kill Americans serving abroad by a foreign adversary,” he said.

“This behavior caused immediate operational damage and long-term lasting damage to our relationships with our allies [and] on our ability to gather intelligence by uncovering information gathering methods,” Levy added. “We won’t know the full extent of Jack Teixeira’s damage for several years.”

After Teixeira's arrest, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers that the department would review its security practices, conduct an Air Force Inspector General investigation of the 102nd Intelligence Wing, and retain Airmen and Guardsmen for review of their security practices and conduct training if necessary.

“There is a judicial press effort underway on this issue,” Kendall told the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “We are all concerned about this and are working very, very hard to get to the bottom of this and take corrective action.”

A 45-day military-wide review found that the “overwhelming majority” of service members with access to classified information are trustworthy, but the Defense Department still needs to improve its handling of classified information by clarifying its regulations.

The 102nd Intelligence Wing was put out of action and was not allowed to resume its mission until May of this year. The Air Force initiated disciplinary and administrative action against 15 airmen after an investigation found that Teixeira's actions were enabled by a “lack of oversight.” The commander of the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron and an administrative commander at Otis Air National Guard Base were suspended last year.

In March, Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of intentionally storing and disclosing confidential information. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts, each charge carried a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, although the guilty plea likely played a role in reducing the sentence to a total of 15 years. Levy said the ruling would be a significant deterrent to would-be leakers.

“I expect that Jack Teixeira's name will be mentioned starting tomorrow when people are trained on the gravity of a top secret clearance and the consequences of leaking information,” he said.

The 22-year-old expressed regret when the verdict was announced.

“I wanted to say that I am sorry for all the harm I have caused to my friends, family and those abroad. “I don’t think I can really summarize how contrite I am,” he said, according to the Washington Post. “I am aware of all my responsibilities and the consequences rest on my shoulders.”

Teixeira is scheduled to be tried by a military court next spring.