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The Air Nationwide guardsman accused of leaking categorised paperwork poses an ongoing risk to nationwide safety as a result of he “should have entry to a trove of categorised info” that may be useful to hostile international locations, federal prosecutors stated in court docket filings launched late Wednesday.
Prosecutors will urge a choose Thursday to maintain Jack Teixeira, 21, behind bars, arguing he poses “a severe flight threat,” and {that a} “international adversary” might attempt to assist him escape america and provides him secure haven.
“The knowledge to which the Defendant had entry — and did entry — far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed on the Web to this point,” the doc stated. The leaks “have the capability to trigger further exceptionally grave harm to the U.S. nationwide safety if disclosed.”
The 18-page memo stated Teixeira had a historical past of creating violent and racist remarks — together with posting on social media about wanting to hold out a mass capturing — preserving “an arsenal of weapons” and tactical gear at his home, and making an attempt to thwart federal investigators by apparently destroying proof.
The submitting comes forward of a detention listening to Thursday in Massachusetts federal court docket. Teixeira, who has not entered a plea, has been in jail since his arrest earlier this month in a case that represents one of the vital intelligence leaks in years. The saga has fueled world uproar and doubts over America’s skill to protect its secrets and techniques.
Prosecutors say within the court docket submitting that Teixeira:
- Presents a continued risk to nationwide safety as a result of he nonetheless has has entry to categorised paperwork that might hurt america.
- Is a flight threat as a result of a international adversary might assist him flee the U.S. and provides him secure haven.
- Made violent and racist remarks together with posting on-line about wanting to hold out a mass capturing.
- Had a cache of weapons, ammo and tactical gear at his mother and father’ home the place he lived in Massachusetts.
- Advised different social media customers to delete their messages in an obvious try to hinder investigators, who additionally discovered a smashed laptop computer in his dumpster.
Teixeira has been charged with possessing categorised paperwork pertaining to nationwide safety and possessing nationwide protection materials. The costs might end in a jail sentence of 25 years “and probably way more,” the court docket submitting stated.
Teixeira’s lawyer declined after a listening to final week to talk to reporters.
“The harm the Defendant has already precipitated to the U.S. nationwide safety is immense. The harm the Defendant remains to be able to inflicting is extraordinary,” prosecutors wrote. “If the Defendant had been launched, it might be all too simple for him to additional disseminate categorised info and would create the unacceptable threat that he would flee america and take refuge with a international adversary to keep away from the attain of U.S. legislation.”
Teixeira, an airman top quality who was arrested April 13, was assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air Nationwide Guard Base, Massachusetts.
A cyber protection operations journeyman granted top-secret safety clearance in 2021, he’s alleged to have used the net discussion board Discord to share the leaked info together with his small neighborhood of on-line buddies, and to have taken images of paper paperwork that he might have smuggled out of a safe facility.
They reveal particulars of U.S. spying on Russia’s conflict machine in Ukraine and secret assessments of Ukraine’s fight energy, in addition to intelligence about America’s allies, together with South Korea and Israel.
The incident has raised questions amongst lawmakers in Washington about who has entry to categorised supplies and about safeguards.
On Wednesday, the Air Pressure suspended the commander and a detachment commander within the 102nd Intelligence Help Squadron, the place Teixeira labored. And the Air Pressure final week halted the intelligence mission of the 102nd Intelligence Wing because the service’s inspector basic investigates.
The doc launched late Wednesday stated that Teixeira had “detailed and troubling discussions about violence and homicide,” together with posts on social media about wanting to hold out a capturing in a public space. He instructed one other consumer he needed to transform a car into an ‘assassination van,” whereas in one other message he stated he needed to “kill a [expletive] ton of individuals” as a approach of “culling the weak minded,” it stated.
Teixeira additionally used his authorities pc to seek for info on earlier mass shootings, together with “Uvalde” and “Mandalay Bay capturing,” the submitting stated. Media stories have instructed these searches might have been associated to Teixeira’s perception in conspiracy theories that the federal government had prior information of those shootings, it added. However prosecutors stated that coupled together with his social media posts and weapons cache these searches had been “troubling.”
Teixeira lives in his mom and stepfather’s home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, and in his bed room retains a gun locker stocked with handguns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, and an AK-style high-capacity weapon, prosecutors stated.
His “arsenal of weapons” additionally included a bazooka, and a “silencer-style accent,” in accordance with investigators, who discovered a tactical helmet with a GoPro digital camera and mount within the dumpster outdoors, in accordance with the submitting.
Additionally within the dumpster, particular brokers discovered a smashed up laptop computer, pill and Xbox gaming console, which “appeared calculated to delay or stop the federal government from gaining a full understanding of the seriousness and scale of his conduct,” the submitting stated. Teixeira additionally messaged others on social media saying, “delete all messages” and if “anybody comes trying, don’t inform them shit,” it added.
His authorized group has indicated it desires him to be launched to his father’s house, his secondary residence, the submitting stated. “Even when the Defendant’s gadgets are faraway from his father’s house, his father actually can’t be anticipated to spend each second monitoring his son’s entry to digital gadgets,” it stated, including that his experience in computer systems would make him even more durable to watch.
Teixeira was suspended from highschool in 2018 for making feedback about Molotov cocktails, weapons, and racial threats, remarks he later attributed to him speaking a couple of online game, the doc stated.
These feedback led to his software for a firearms ID the identical yr to be rejected, it stated. He reapplied in Nov. 2020, saying in his software letter that he had since “grown as an individual” and that he meant to be an “excellent airman” and an “upstanding citizen.”
Final week, a choose granted a request by the defendant’s authorized group to delay the listening to so they might have extra time to handle the prosecutors’ case.
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