Pentagon Discord leaker gets 15 years in prison

What happened

A federal judge in Boston Tuesday sentenced Jack Teixeira, a Massachusetts Air National Guard member who leaked classified military documents on Discord, to 15 years in prison. Teixeira, 22, was arrested in April 2023 and pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. Jodi Cohen, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, called Teixeira "one of the most prolific leakers of classified information in American history."

Who said what

Teixeira posted classified information on the social media app Discord nearly every day for more than a year, Cohen said after Tuesday's sentencing hearing. He "grossly betrayed our country and the oath he took to safeguard its secrets in order to boost his ego and impress his friends," and the "exceptionally grave damage he caused will impact our national security for decades to come." The documents Teixeira shared included secret information on how the U.S. transported military equipment to Ukraine and how it would be used, and reports on Russian and Ukrainian troop movements that may have compromised America's intelligence-gathering methods.

The case "raised questions over how easily a relatively low-level member of the guard" had accessed "some of the country's most sensitive secrets," The New York Times said. In the subsequent investigation, The Washington Post said, military officials "disciplined at least 15 people after finding that a 'lack of supervision' and a 'culture of complacency' had permitted Teixeira to sneak photographs of classified information out of his workplace" even after colleagues "raised concerns after he was observed looking up government secrets to which his military job did not require access."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

What next?

Teixeira is separately "set to face a military court-martial in the spring," the Times said. If convicted, he "could be subject to a dishonorable charge, stripping him of his rank and military benefits," the Post added. Currently, The Associated Press said, Teixeira "remains in the Air National Guard in an unpaid status."