Accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira ought to be detained earlier than trial, Justice Dept. argues

The Justice Division argued Wednesday night time that accused Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira should stay in detention earlier than he’s tried on fees associated to his alleged illegal retention and transmission of nationwide protection and categorised paperwork.

In a detention memo filed with the U.S. District Court docket in Massachusetts, prosecutors offered a number of causes that the 21-year-old member of the Air Nationwide Guard shouldn’t be launched to the custody of his father earlier than his trial. Teixeira’s detention listening to is to be held Thursday.

Investigators say they discovered proof that Teixeira tried to thwart the investigation into his alleged leaks; included within the prosecutors’ memo are samples of over 40,000 messages they are saying Teixeira despatched on Discord — many in regards to the allegedly leaked paperwork.

In March, he provided info to customers in his group on the moment messaging and social platform Discord, in line with a chat discovered by investigators.

Investigators additionally captured conversations that confirmed Teixeira instructing others within the Discord group to “delete all messages.” 

“[i]f anybody comes trying, do not inform them sh**,” he allegedly wrote to at least one person. And he instructed one other, “Attempt to delete all my messages in civil discussions.” He got here up with one plan to have a Discord person invite him to a chat after which ban Teixeira and use the “choice to delete all my messages.” The person knowledgeable him, “it solely goes to previous 7 days.” Teixeira responded with a profanity.

Investigators say once they arrived at his mom’s house earlier this month, they discovered a pill, laptop computer and XBox smashed in his trash. Additionally on the home, the FBI discovered a gun locker the place a number of weapons, together with handguns, rifles, shotguns and high-capacity weapons have been saved “two ft” from his mattress, the submitting says. 

Teixeira was suspended from highschool in 2018 after a classmate heard him speaking about weapons and Molotov cocktails. He claimed they have been references to a online game however when he utilized for a firearms identification that very same 12 months, he was rejected due to these remarks. He utilized once more in 2019 and was once more denied the allow. In 2020, he argued that the place of belief he held with the U.S. authorities certified him to own a gun. 

Teixeira additionally allegedly posted violent rhetoric on-line. The detention memo notes that final November, he wrote that if he had his manner, he would “kill a [expletive] ton of individuals” as a result of it might be “culling the weak minded.” 

Earlier this 12 months, in February, he allegedly instructed a person that he was tempted to make a sort of minivan into an “assassination van.”

In July 2022, utilizing his authorities pc, investigators say he searched quite a few phrases related to mass taking pictures, together with “uvalde.” 

The Justice Division famous within the memo that Teixeira faces 25 12 months in jail and “doubtlessly much more,”  hinting that he could face extra fees. The prolonged potential most sentence might make him a major flight threat, prosecutors argue, and the worth of the data he obtained — in addition to his low present web value of about $19,000 — might make him susceptible to affords from international locations unfriendly to the U.S.

“He accessed and should still have entry to a trove of categorised info that might be of great worth to hostile nation states that would provide him protected harbor and try to facilitate his escape from the USA,” the memo mentioned.

The Justice Division warned that if launched, Teixeira might pose an excellent higher risk now that his id is understood. “Those self same adversaries have each incentive to contact the Defendant, to hunt further info he could have bodily entry to or information of, and to offer him with the means to assist him flee the nation in return for that info.”

Based on the federal government’s memo, starting in February 2022, Teixeira had entry to “a whole bunch of categorised paperwork containing nationwide protection info that had no bearing on his position as basically an info know-how (“IT”) help specialist.” 

Within the Discord group, investigators say, he acknowledged on a number of events that he posted categorised materials and even requested different members what they needed him to publish. 

In March, he allegedly instructed the group he would now not share categorised supplies and in April, he reemerged with a distinct username, encouraging others to delete messages. 

The submitting additionally comprises quite a few agreements Teixiera signed about his job on the Air Nationwide Guard, FBI affidavits, and photos of his room.