On Tuesday, Jack Teixeira, the former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who pleaded guilty in March to multiple violations of the Espionage Act, has been handed a 15-year prison sentence, to be followed by three years of supervised release.
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Jack Teixeira, the former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who prosecutors said “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.
Judge Indira Talwani issued the sentence on Tuesday in Boston federal court.
Teixeira pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.
The prosecutors were quick to note the precedent set by Teiseira’s sentence:
Joshua S. Levy, the acting U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, whose office prosecuted the case, said the “significant sentence sends a powerful message to every individual who holds a top-secret clearance.”
“I expect that starting tomorrow, Jack Teixeira’s name will be mentioned when people are trained about the gravity of a top-secret clearance and the consequences if you leak information,” Levy said at a press briefing following the sentencing.
Airman Teixeira was holding a top-secret clearance and was assigned as, essentially, an information technology (IT) type troubleshooting computer workstations. In that capacity he was able to access a wide variety of classified information, which he made public on his Discord account – Discord is an online messaging/video chat platform primarily used by gamers. Teixeira, in court, not only pled guilty but admitted knowing that the documents he illegally removed and posted online were marked as classified.
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Teixeira received his top-secret clearance in 2021 and started posting documents on Discord in 2022. Some of the information Teixeira released had to do with timetables and lists of equipment being sent to Ukraine, troop movements in Ukraine, and as-yet undisclosed information about a possible terror plot involving an attack on United States forces abroad.
Previously on RedState: Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira Indicted by Fed. Grand Jury on Classified Docs Charges
15 Air National Guard Members Disciplined Following Investigation Into Accused Leaker Jack Teixeira
Accused Classified Document Leaker Jack Teixeira Pleads Guilty
Jack Teixeria’s legal woes haven’t ended yet.
Teixeira will also face a military court-martial on charges alleging he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the U.S. Air Force.
The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.
The court-martial case may also result in a prison sentence.
When the court-martial gets underway, we will bring you the latest developments on that case as well.
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