Pentagon Discord leaker gets 15 years in prison

What happened

A federal judge in Boston on Tuesday sentenced Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who leaked classified military documents on Discord, to 15 years in prison. Teixeira, 22, was arrested in April 2023 and pleaded guilty in March to six counts of intentionally storing and disclosing national defense information under the Espionage Act. Jodi Cohen, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, called Teixeira “one of the most prolific leakers of classified information in American history.”

Who said what?

Teixeira posted classified information on the social media app Discord almost daily for more than a year, Cohen said after Tuesday's sentencing hearing. He “grossly betrayed our country and the oath he swore to protect its secrets in order to boost his ego and impress his friends,” and the “extraordinarily grave damage he has caused will be to our national security.” “The documents Teixeira passed on included classified information about how the U.S. transported military equipment to Ukraine and how it was to be used, as well as reports on Russian and Ukrainian troop movements that may have influenced American methods impaired intelligence gathering.