Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years on federal charges

(BOSTON) — 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.

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.

Levy said Teixeira “abused his position of trust” and put himself above his country when he exploited his top-secret clearance and “made the deliberate choice” for over a year to access hundreds of classified documents and share them on Discord.

“Today, Mr. Teixeira has paid a very heavy price for the laws he broke and for the incredible damage that he caused,” Levy said, noting that it could take several years to know the full extent of the damage.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement that the sentence is a “stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information: betray that trust, and you will be held accountable.”

Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose the maximum prison sentence of 200 months — more than 16 years — in prison.

“The harm the defendant caused to the national security from his disclosures of national defense information is extraordinary,” prosecutors said in a memorandum filed ahead of the sentencing hearing. “By posting intelligence products on the social media platform Discord to feed his own ego and impress his anonymous friends, Teixeira caused exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States. The scope of his betrayal is breathtaking.”

The defense sought the minimum sentence, citing Teixeira’s autism and ADHD. They also argued he did not intend to harm the country, only to educate his online friends about world events.

“Jack is still essentially a child — at the very least, a ‘youthful offender’ — who has his whole life in front of him,” defense attorneys Michael Bachrach and Brandan Kelley stated in a memorandum presented to the judge ahead of sentencing. “At 22 years old, a sentence of 132 months’ imprisonment would provide more than enough time for him to grow and mature; informed by his behavior as well as from his punishment.”

“With the support of his family and mental health treatment providers, Jack should have little trouble living a productive life inside prison and upon his eventual release,” the memorandum continued.

Teixeira is also currently negotiating a disposition to his parallel, but related, military prosecution, the memo said.

According to the signed plea agreement filed with the court, Teixeira agreed to plead guilty to all six counts charging him with willful retention and transmission of national defense information. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.

Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and posted images of them on Discord prior to his arrest in April 2023, a prosecutor said during the plea hearing.

As part of his plea agreement, Teixeira must sit for a debrief with the Defense Department and the Justice Department and give back any sensitive materials that might remain in his possession.

Federal prosecutors have made clear Teixeira had no business peering at classified information because his low-level job did not require it.

“The defendant’s job was to troubleshoot computer workstations,” Assistant United States Attorney Jason Casey said during a March hearing.

Still, Casey said, Teixeira accessed “hundreds” of classified documents inside the secure facility where he worked and “purposefully removed classified documents and information despite admonishments from his superiors to stop.”

Teixeira has admitted in court to knowing the documents were marked classified.

Without mentioning specifics, federal prosecutors said Teixeira exposed information about the compromise by a foreign adversary of certain accounts belonging to a U.S. company and information about equipment the U.S. was sending to Ukraine, how it would be transferred and how it would be used upon receipt. Prosecutors said he also posted material about troop movements in Ukraine, a plot by a foreign adversary to attack U.S. forces abroad, and Western deliveries of supplies to the Ukrainian battlefield.

Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record, and had top secret security clearance beginning in 2021, according to the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department said he began posting classified documents online in January 2022.

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.