By Steve Neavling
Updated: 3:11 p.m. Thursday — The FBI today arrested a 21-year-old air national guardsman suspected of leaking highly sensitive U.S. intelligence documents, the New York Times reports.
Jack Teixeira is a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard and is part of an online group where the documents were posted.
The FBI issued a statement:
“Today, the FBI took 21-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira into custody without incident at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, for his alleged involvement in leaking classified U.S. government and military documents. Since late last week, the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk.”
From Earlier Thursday
As the FBI investigates the leak of classified Pentagon documents, The Washington Post reports that the man behind the leak was a young gun enthusiast who shared the information with “a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid isolation of the pandemic.”
The man disclosed the documents on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers, weeks before the Pentagon realized they were leaked.
The source of the leak was called “OG” on Discord, where he appeared to post photos and near-verbatim transcripts of classified documents.
OG told members of a Discord group that he brought the documents home from his job on a “military base,” according to one of the members, who declined to identify the military base.
OG claimed he spent time inside a secure facility that barred cellphones and other electronic devices. He wrote up the classified documents to share with members of the Discord group and even posted hundreds of photos of the documents.
“He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind,” the member said.
On Feb. 28, another Discord user began posting several document photographs of the classified documents on another Discord server. Additional documents appeared on yet another Discord server on March 4, making the documents available to thousands of users.
Then on April 5, some of the classified documents were posted on Russian Telegram channels and the message board platform 4chan, before migrating to Twitter.
On April 6, The New York Times reported on the leak.
