The FBI arrested a 21-year-old Air Guardsman as part of an investigation into the recent leak of highly classified US intelligence documents, the latest twist in an embarrassing saga that has raised fresh concerns over the security of government secrets.
Attorney-general Merrick Garland identified the suspect as Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, in a brief statement to reporters on Thursday. “FBI agents took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident,” Garland said. Teixeria is expected to appear in federal court in Massachusetts this week.
The FBI said in a statement they had arrested Teixeira at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, “for his alleged involvement in leaking classified US government and military documents”. A person familiar with the matter said Teixeira was a traditional guardsman, a part-time member of the military.
The arrest comes amid a fast-moving probe into the leak of more than 100 classified documents on social media, which started on the messaging platform Discord. Some of them were later published on Telegram and Twitter. They largely focus on the war in Ukraine but also include information intercepted by the US from allies including South Korea and Israel.
Pentagon officials first became aware of the documents on
April 6, sending law enforcement officials on a hunt to find leaker and their motivations.
The most recent leak appears to involve fewer materials than the terabytes of information stolen in 2013 by then National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden or the thousands of state department cables published by WikiLeaks beginning in 2010.
But more problematically for US officials, the leaks appear to contain relatively current material with files from February and early March, which relate to helping Ukraine prepare for a critical counteroffensive to try to take back territory from Russia.
The leaked documents also contain intercepted communications from allies including Israel and South Korea. After Snowden released documents revealing the US spied on Germany, Brazil and other allies, it had a chilling effect on diplomatic relations. Analysts said the most recent disclosures could also harm bilateral ties, at least for a period.
Thursday’s arrest of a junior enlisted member of the Air National Guard is sure to raise questions about how such a low-level military employee could gain access to some of the America’s most sensitive secrets.
A Pentagon spokesperson, Brigadier General Pat Ryder, on Thursday described the leak as “a deliberate criminal act”.
US officials said they were starting to assess the fallout from the leak and understand its full extent.
The Pentagon is also conducting a review on who has access to sensitive information and how it is distributed. The defence department has already begun clamping down on who receives daily intelligence briefings and as well as the most sensitive information, US officials said Thursday.
President Joe Biden tried to play down the consequences of the leak earlier on Thursday. “I’m concerned that it happened, but there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of great consequence right now,” he said.
While the documents do not contain battle plans for Kyiv’s coming counteroffensive against Russia, they offer a more downbeat picture of the state of Ukrainian forces and their ability to make significant gains on the battlefield in the coming months.
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington
