leaker of top-secret Pentagon documents arrested

The Washington Post

A young member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI on Thursday afternoon in the investigation into leaks of classified military intelligence that started with a small online group and eventually led to hundreds of government secrets spilling out to the wider world.

The arrest came hours after people familiar with the case, speaking on the condition of anonymity, identified the individual, 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, as the primary focus of the investigation. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that the individual who leaked the information shared documents with a small circle of online friends on the Discord chat platform, which is popular with gamers. In that group, a user said, Teixeira’s handles included jackthedripper.

Heavily armed FBI agents led Teixeira out of a family residence in Dighton, Mass., on Thursday afternoon. Wearing red gym shorts and a T-shirt, the young man was led into a waiting car. He could make an initial court appearance Friday in a case that has transfixed much of official Washington for the past week.

A friend of Teixeira described his motives to The Post as wanting to share - and show off - the secrets he knew to a small circle of online friends who bonded over video games. If convicted, Teixeira could end up serving years in prison.

In brief remarks to reporters at Justice Department headquarters, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixeira was arrested “without incident” on allegations of “alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.” Garland did not take questions.

Teixeira served in a junior position, but he had access to an internal Defense Department computer network for top-secret information, called the Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communications System, according to a U.S. official familiar with the matter. That access would have allowed him the ability to read and potentially to print documents classified at the same level as many of the leaked files.

Teixeira told members of the online group Thug Shaker Central that he worked as a technology support staffer for the Massachusetts Air National Guard and at a base on Cape Cod, and this was how he was able to access classified documents, one member of the Discord server told The Post. Members of the group had come together initially because of their shared interest in guns and military gear, the member told The Post.

A Facebook post from the 102nd Intelligence Wing, with headquarters at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, congratulated an individual by the same name for his promotion to airman first class in July.

The fast-moving investigation kicked off in early April when Pentagon officials first became aware that documents about an extraordinary range of subjects exposed how the United States spies on friends and foes alike.

The leak of dozens of pages also upset senior Ukrainian officials, who had sought to keep details of their military’s vulnerabilities hidden as Russia’s war with Ukraine grinds on in its second year. The Post also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public.

Investigators are likely to probe how Teixeira, from his position at a base in Massachusetts, would have had access to highly classified information, some of which was used to brief senior leaders at the Pentagon. National Guard units perform some support services for active-duty units, including intelligence support for senior military officials, one U.S. official said. In that case, Teixeira could have had access to the kinds of highly classified documents that he is alleged to have shared with his fellow members