BOSTON (WWLP) – A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified Pentagon documents was arraigned Friday in Boston.
Jack Teixeira is a Massachusetts National Guard Airman and holds the rank of Airman First Class. He has been based at Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod and is a cyber transport systems journeyman. He was arrested Thursday at his home in North Dighton without incident.
On Friday, he was charged with possessing classified documents pertaining national security and possessing national defense material. Over 100 classified documents from the Defense Department were found online.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Department of Defense is looking at their policies to prevent any further leaks, “The Department of Defense is leading an important effort now to evaluate and review the national security implications, and most important, to conduct a review with methods of access, accountability and control procedures that the department has so something like this can never happen again.”
These documents included everything from maps and satellite images from the Ukrainian battlefield to intelligence on U.S. allies. Pictures of classified information are reported to have first appeared early last month.
The documents were first shared on the instant-messaging platform known as Discord, which is popular amongst gamers.