Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira pleads guilty to obstructing justice at court-martial
Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman convicted of federal offenses for leaking sensitive information online, pleaded guilty Thursday to a military charge of obstructing justice, a spokesperson for his family confirmed to ABC News.
A military court-martial convened this week at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts on charges alleging Teixeira violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
An undated picture shows Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard, who was arrested by the FBI, over his alleged involvement in leaks online of classified documents, posing for a selfie at an unidentified location.
Social Media Website via Reuters
Teixeira pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge at the court-martial on Thursday, his family spokesperson confirmed. A second charge of disobeying orders was dropped as part of a plea agreement, which calls for dishonorable discharge and no confinement, according to the spokesperson.
He is expected to be sentenced later Thursday, according to the spokesperson.
Under the obstruction charge, he was accused of “disposing of an iPad, computer hard drive, and cell phone, with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself” sometime between March 1, 2023, and April 13, 2023, as well as directing another person to delete Discord messages he sent “with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself” on or about April 7, 2023.
Teixeira, who worked as an information technology specialist, was convicted last year on federal charges, pleading guilty to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.
He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.
An Air Force evidentiary hearing was held in May 2024 to determine whether his case should move forward to an Air Force court-martial.
Federal prosecutors said Teixeira “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”
According to the signed plea agreement filed with the federal 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 federal plea hearing last year. He has admitted in court to knowing the documents were marked classified.
Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record. He had top secret security clearance beginning in 2021 and began posting classified documents online in January 2022, according to the Department of Justice.
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