BOSTON — Prosecutors plan to argue {that a} Massachusetts Air Nationwide Guard member who pleaded responsible to leaking extremely categorised navy paperwork concerning the warfare in Ukraine ought to serve practically 17 years in jail.
In a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, prosecutors mentioned Jack Teixeira “perpetrated one of the vital and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American historical past.”
“As each a member of the USA Armed Forces and a clearance holder, the defendant took an oath to defend the USA and to guard its secrets and techniques — secrets and techniques which might be very important to U.S. nationwide safety and the bodily security of People serving abroad,” prosecutors wrote. “Teixeira violated his oath, nearly every single day, for over a yr.”
Teixeira’s attorneys will argue that U.S. District Decide Indira Talwani ought to sentence him to 11 years in jail. He’s scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 12.
Of their sentencing memorandum, they acknowledged that their consumer “made a horrible choice which he repeated over 14 months.”
“It’s a criminal offense that deserves severe penalties,” the attorneys wrote. “Jack has totally accepted accountability for the wrongfulness of his actions and stands prepared to just accept no matter punishment should now be imposed.”
Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, pleaded responsible in March to 6 counts of the willful retention and transmission of nationwide protection data underneath the Espionage Act practically a yr after he was arrested in probably the most consequential nationwide safety leak in years.
The 22-year-old admitted that he illegally collected a number of the nation’s most delicate secrets and techniques and shared them with different customers on the social media platform Discord.
When Teixeira pleaded responsible, prosecutors mentioned they might search a jail time period on the excessive finish of the sentencing vary. However the protection wrote Tuesday that the 11 years is a “severe and enough to account for deterrence concerns and could be primarily equal to half the life that Jack has lived to this point.”
Describing Teixeira as autistic, remoted and spending most of his time on-line particularly together with his Discord group, his attorneys mentioned Teixeira’s actions, although felony, had been by no means meant to “hurt the USA.” He additionally had no prior felony file.
“As an alternative, his intent was to coach his buddies about world occasions to make sure they weren’t misled by misinformation,” the attorneys wrote. “To Jack, the Ukraine warfare was his technology’s World Battle II or Iraq, and he wanted somebody to share the expertise with.”
Prosecutors, although, countered that Teixeira doesn’t endure from an mental incapacity that forestalls him from realizing proper from mistaken. They argued that Teixeira’s post-arrest prognosis as having “delicate, high-functioning” autism “is of questionable relevance in these proceedings.”
“No matter developmental or social difficulties Teixeira could have skilled, his choice to illegally disclose nationwide protection data and put the lives of different individuals in danger was a volitional selection that he made knowingly, willfully, and with full consciousness of the results time and time once more,” prosecutors wrote.
The safety breach raised alarm over America’s capability to guard its most intently guarded secrets and techniques and compelled the Biden administration to scramble to attempt to include the diplomatic and navy fallout. The leaks embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to safeguard categorised data and disciplined members discovered to have deliberately did not take required motion about Teixeira’s suspicious conduct.
Teixeira, who was a part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air Nationwide Guard Base in Massachusetts, labored as a cyber transport programs specialist, which is basically an data expertise specialist liable for navy communications networks. He stays within the Air Nationwide Guard in an unpaid standing, an Air Pressure official mentioned.
Authorities mentioned he first typed out categorised paperwork he accessed after which started sharing pictures of recordsdata that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. Prosecutors additionally mentioned he tried to cowl his tracks earlier than his arrest, and authorities discovered a smashed pill, laptop computer and Xbox gaming console in a dumpster at his home.
The leak uncovered to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine, together with details about troop actions in Ukraine, and the availability of provides and gear to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira additionally admitted posting details about a U.S. adversary’s plans to hurt U.S. forces serving abroad.
