Armored vehicle, rifles at the ready, bulletproof vests, helmets: the FBI police officers who approached Jack Teixeira’s childhood home on Thursday are prepared for anything. Because they are looking for a man who is responsible for one of the largest secret service data leaks in US history.
But it is not a heavily armed man who comes out of the house, but a lanky young man in a T-shirt and red shorts. He clasped his hands behind his head as a sign that he was unarmed. He looks boyish, almost helpless. Teixeira slowly approaches the FBI people. He surrenders without resistance.
For days, investigators across the US have been feverishly searching for the leak in the scandal – the person responsible for publishing dozens of confidential US intelligence and Pentagon documents on the Internet. It has been circulating online for weeks, some in its original form and some in a manipulated form: highly sensitive information on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as on US spying operations against allies. The damage is immense, and the trust of the partners is damaged. A week after the first media reports, the breakthrough has now been achieved. The alleged mole: a man from their own ranks.
Teixeira probably wanted to show off in front of others
Teixeira is 21 years old, IT professional at a military base in Massachusetts. Only hours before he is arrested, the US media publishes the first details, digging into his life, which largely takes place on the Internet. On the Discord platform popular with video gamers, he leads a chat group that was founded in 2020 during the Corona pandemic. It has two dozen young members. Her topics: war and geopolitics. This is where Teixeira publishes his explosive documents.
He tells the group that he obtained the documents at the military base where he works. There he spent parts of the day in a secure facility where cell phones and other electronic devices that could be used to take photos or videos were banned. Therefore, he initially copied the documents. In December 2022, Teixeira started sharing the transcripts with the group. A member of the group told the Washington Post that it was probably about “bragging about to his friends” but also about informing them.
But Teixeira gradually becomes afraid that he will be caught at work while he is copying. He starts by taking individual documents home and photographing them there. In January 2023, he uploaded footage of the classified information for the first time. Arguably a mistake: During their research, media discovered that details of the interior of Teixeira’s childhood home, published in family photos on social media, matched details in the margins of some photos of the secret documents that were released. According to investigators, invoices from the internet platform also helped identify the suspect.
As US media have researched, Teixeira is said to have suddenly stopped sharing the explosive information with the chat group in March. According to the research, the reason was that someone from the district posted documents in another group at the end of February and thus broke the internally agreed confidentiality. Shortly before the “New York Times” reported on the leak for the first time in early April, the young man seemed desperate. “He said something happened and he prays to God that this doesn’t happen,” the Washington Post quoted a minor member of the group as saying.
Patriotic leader guy
According to US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, he will be informed of the data leak for the first time on April 6th. On this very day, Teixeira searches for the word “leak” on a Massachusetts work computer. Presumably he wants to know whether the secret services are already on to him.
Unlike the revelations by former secret service agent Edward Snowden, for example, there has been no indication of a political motive so far. Despite somber views, Teixeira was not necessarily hostile to the US government, members of the chat group say. They also consider it unrealistic that he was a Russian or Ukrainian agent. In interviews, some members describe their chat mate as fit, fit, armed, a leader type, someone they looked up to. A friend calls Teixeira patriotic, a devout Catholic, someone with an interest in guns and doubts about America’s future.
But how can it be that a very young employee has access to such sensitive and explosive information? According to investigators, Teixeira enlisted in the National Guard in September 2019 and most recently worked at the military base in the town of Sandwich, about 95 kilometers south of Boston. As early as 2021, because of his role as an IT specialist, he received official approval to view top-secret government documents – even though he worked in a lower rank. Actually, he should have protected the networks.
Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder emphasizes that in the US military, employees are often given “a great deal of responsibility from an early age,” for example as the leader of a military unit in combat.
Ex-Intelligence Coordinator James Clapper says the US government’s system of handling classified documents is based to some degree on personal trust. Yes, there are security checks to make sure people who get access to classified information are trustworthy and not giving out any information, he told CNN. But the human factor remains. “That’s the weak point here.”
