Baby-faced Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira copped a plea deal Monday that could land him more than 16 years behind bars for committing one of the most serious national security breaches in years.
The disgraced former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, 22, entered federal court in Boston, Mass., shackled and dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and nodded to his family before the proceeding, according to a Washington Post reporter on X.
Teixiera then pleaded guilty to all six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information against him — charges that could have ended with him serving up to 60 years in prison.
Prosecutors have said the explosive case was not about espionage but instead a badly misguided low-level airman who wanted to impress his online gaming buddies, boasting he had top-security clearance on “stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China,” the New York Times reported.
But the risk posed by Teixiera — who led a chat room on Discord that he dubbed “Thug Shaker Central” — was grave, the feds said.
Among the data he was accused of sharing were top-secret Pentagon documents detailing intelligence assessments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including “how the equipment would be transferred, and how the equipment would be used upon receipt,” a federal indictment shows.
@ISIDEWITH3mos3MO
Is a 16-year prison sentence fair for a young person who leaked confidential information, even if their intent wasn't to endanger national security?
@9KKCM3W3mos3MO
if it was not intended the punishment should be less severe
@9KJMH353mos3MO
Punitive justice should not be the first resort. Only if reformative justice is not possible, or there is evidence that the convicted has consistent bad behavior, should a punitive approach be taken.
@9KJHH4W3mos3MO
Yes because they still put the nation in danger no matter what the what they were trusted and broke the trust so they should be punished.
@9KHVS3LIndependent3mos3MO
i do no believe it's fair for a young man get sentenced that long, I do not believe he has any bad intentioned
@ISIDEWITH3mos3MO