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Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested on Thursday, April 13, in connection with a leak of confidential military intelligence documents that have shaken the United States and its allies. As per aerial footage, Teixeira was arrested from his home in Dighton, Massachusetts, under the Espionage Act.
Teixeira reportedly shared the files on an online gaming chat room on Discord, which revealed that the US was spying on its allies and enemies alike, along with sensitive information related to the conflict happening in Ukraine against Russia.
Footage of the arrest in the 8,000-person town an hour south of Boston shows a young male, believed to be Teixeira, walking backward with his hands raised in the direction of armed FBI officers. He was restrained and escorted to a vehicle.
While Jack Teixeira's arrest happened, local roads were obstructed by police officers.
Jack Teixeira leaked the documents on Discord
Several months ago, at least fifty and possibly more than one hundred classified documents were posted on the social media platform Discord, which is popular among gamers.
As per BBC, the documents included information related to various intelligence assessments about the Ukraine-Russia conflict, along with sensitive information related to countries around the globe. According to a Defense Department spokesperson, the Pentagon is still working to "understand the scope, scale, and impact of these leaks."
Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Republican Mike Turner, released a statement wherein he said that the team is examining why this happened, how it happened under their noses, and how to prevent future information leaks.
In an interview published by the Washington Post on April 12, one of the Discord members of the chatroom where the documents were initially posted described the sender as "a young, mid-20s gun enthusiast who worked at an anonymous military association."
According to the Post, the guy was the head of a Discord chatroom where around two dozen people exchanged "memes, offensive jokes, and idle chitchat" as well as prayed and watched movies together. In the chatroom, there were members from Russia and Ukraine, as well as a number of other European, Asian, and South American nations.
At first, the leaks were only shared in the small chatroom. But at the beginning of March, users started sharing them on other Discord servers, such as ones for the game Minecraft and a Filipino YouTuber.
The secret papers were then posted on the message board 4chan and the chat app Telegram, especially on channels that backed Russia. In some cases, they were changed to make it look like more Ukrainians had died.
While speaking to Reuters, Eddy Souza, aged 22, who claimed to have attended school with Jack Teixeira said that he was shocked that his former classmate had been named as the suspect in the leaks.
"He's a good kid, not a troublemaker, just a quiet guy. It sounds like it was a stupid kid's mistake."
US President Joe Biden was informed of Jack Teixeira's arrest while visiting Ireland, according to White House sources, who confirmed the information to CBS.
