The FBI on Thursday arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard, over the leaks online of classified documents that embarrassed Washington with allies around the world.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested Teixeira “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information.
Garland noted Teixeira was a member of the US Air Force National Guard, and that he was taken into custody by FBI agents without incident. Teixeira is expected to make his initial court appearance at the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
In comments to Sputnik, the US Attorney’s Office detailed that Teixeira will appear in court on Friday in Boston, Massachusetts. A time and date was not earlier stated by Garland.
A subsequent statement issued by the FBI further confirmed the arrest and stated that the agency was “continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at the [Massachusetts] residence.”
US media earlier reported that the leaker was a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, and that he had also led a small online gaming chat group where the leak of classified US intelligence documents on the conflict in Ukraine took place over the past months.
Teixeira is said to have been responsible for overseeing a private online group, Thug Shaker Central, with about 20 to 30 participants, who used the chat to discuss guns and share various memes.
Meanwhile, another American daily reported that the US authorities also believed an Air National Guardsman based at Fort Bragg was behind the leak of highly classified military documents online and could arrest the suspect on Thursday.
Most of the more than 60 documents that were posted online seem to have originated from the Central Intelligence Agency’s Operations Center and the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the report said.
Sputnik
