Charges have been brought against the suspect in the US intelligence scandal two months after his arrest. A federal jury charged military man Jack Teixeira with six counts of willfully storing and leaking classified national defense information, the Justice Department in Washington said.
Teixeira was arrested by the FBI in Massachusetts on April 13 after criminal charges had been filed against him. Since then, the 21-year-old has been behind bars for security reasons.
“Teixeira is accused of providing information to users of a social media platform that he knew were not authorized to receive it,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. The US government entrusted the IT specialist with access to classified information – including information that he must have known would cause serious damage to US national security if passed on. According to the ministry, the man faces up to ten years in prison if convicted.
Teixeira joined the National Guard in September 2019 and was given official clearance to view top-secret government documents in 2021. As of January 2022, he is said to have intentionally released information classified as “secret” and “top secret” in a closed chat room on the Discord platform popular with video gamers. From there, they spread on the Internet until authorities and the media became aware of them. The leak only became public in April of this year.
