US ex-military officer who leaked Pentagon files accepts plea deal

Washington, Mar 04 (EFE). – Former United States military officer Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty Monday to six felony counts for leaking classified Pentagon documents after accepting a plea deal that will get him up to 16 years in prison.

The 22-year-old, who served in the Massachusetts Air National Guard (a reserve corps), amended his previous plea at a hearing in Boston after pleading not guilty in June. According to the signed document filed with the court, he agreed to plead guilty to all six counts of willful retention and communication of national defense information. In exchange, the prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act. Texeira’s prison sentence could range from 11 to 16 years, the longest in an unlawful retention case.

If found guilty in court, his sentence could have reached 60 years in prison. The former officer accepted to accessing, printing, and leaking classified Pentagon documents on Discord, a social networkserving at an Air National Guard base in Massachusetts. According to prosecutors, Texeira’s job was troubleshooting workstations, and he should not have accessed the highly classified information.

Assistant US Attorney Jason Casey said the accused “purposefully removed classified documents and information despite admonishments from his superiors to stop.” The classified documents circulated on the Internet in March 2023, and the former officer was arrested in April by the FBI, and has been in custody ever since.

According to the indictment, Teixeira allegedly revealed information about military equipment that the US was going to ship to Ukraine and how it was going to be sent and used.