Jack Teixeira arrested for leaking US military documents

Kathmandu: A member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in connection with the leaking of classified Pentagon’s documents.

The FBI has arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira on Thursday for the probe into alleged leaks of US military documents. The Attorney General Merrick Garland informed that Teixeira was held and will be arraigned in federal court in connection with leaks.

The arrest of Teixeira comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers.

Teixeira was arrested in Massachusetts ‘without incident’ and the investigation is underway, Garland said. Teixeira will first appear in court on Friday in Boston, according to the US attorney’s office there.

While authorities have offered few details about Teixeira, information about his life started to appear in US media in the wake of his arrest.

Video showed heavily armed officers in Massachusetts accompanying a young man wearing a grey T-shirt and bright red shorts into a waiting car. His head was bowed, and his hair was close-cropped.

The New York Times reported that Teixeira was a member of the intelligence wing of the state national guard. A post on the unit’s official Facebook page noted he was among a group of members promoted to Airman First Class in July 2022.

The Air Force later said Teixeira joined the Air National Guard in September 2019. His official job title was ‘cyber transport systems journeyman’.

The role is tasked with maintaining the underlying infrastructure of the Air Force’s ‘vast, global communications network’.

The Times and other US media have also identified Teixeira as the leader of a small gaming chat group on the Discord platform, where the leaked documents first emerged.