Prosecution alleges Teixeira was reprimanded for handling classified information
U.S. Jack Teixeira, accused of possessing and transmitting classified information, was repeatedly reprimanded for handling classified information, state prosecutors said in a filing sent to court.
“The defendant continued to release classified information despite being aware that he was aware of the law violation and even after being repeatedly reprimanded by his superiors,” the document states.
It is specified that Teixeira received reprimands in September and October 2022 that were related to the defendant’s “troubling actions” in handling classified information.
Teixeira is a junior aviation cybertransport systems specialist with the rank of Private First Class in the U.S. Air Force. He faces two charges: “unauthorized possession and transmission of national defense information” (which could carry up to 10 years in prison) and “unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material” (for which he could face up to five years in prison).
The Pentagon is investigating the leak on the social networking site of materials describing the state of Ukrainian troops and U.S. and NATO plans to strengthen them. The New York Times noted that the documents, dated early March, were allegedly distributed in “Russian pro-government telegram channels. It was claimed that more than 100 documents may have hit the Internet, and the damage from the incident is estimated to be significant. The Pentagon told RIA Novosti that it was investigating the information about the leak.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, when asked about the leak, said that Russia has no doubt that the United States and NATO are directly or indirectly involved in the Ukrainian conflict.
According to the Washington Post, Teixeira began publishing classified documents on a Discord server around February 2022, at the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. Teixeira allegedly thought the conflict in Ukraine was “depressing” and thought Moscow and Kiev “should have more in common than what separates them.”