Teixeira is accused of “alleged extraction, retention and unauthorized transmission of classified national defense information”
The attorney general of the United States, Merrick Garland, has confirmed this Thursday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested Jack Teixeira as the main suspect in the recent leaks of secret files from the Department of Defense.
As Garland explained in a brief appearance before the media, Teixeira, a 21-year-old man and member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, has been arrested in North Dighton, in the southeast of the state, and is now in custody. from the US authorities.
“FBI agents have arrested Teixeira this afternoon without incident,” said Garland, who explained that the detainee is charged with “alleged extraction, retention, and unauthorized transmission of classified national defense information,” CNN reports.
Images broadcast by the US television channel ABC News show moments of the operation in North Dighton, including the moment in which at least six FBI agents capture Teixeira, who, with his hands on his head, has entered a van. The defendant will be tried in federal court, as detailed by Garland.
According to the profile previously published by the newspaper ‘The New York Times’, Teixeira, a lonely young man with a passion for weapons, was part of the chat on the Discord platform –a popular social network among video game users– where They published the leaks.
The documents reportedly remained on Discord from January until early March, when a user posted dozens of them to a group with a larger number of members. Since then, at least a dozen files have been released. An edited version of one of these documents surfaced last week via the Russian messaging app Telegram.
The files detail the US assessment of the war in Ukraine and include plans to reinforce the Ukrainian military for a counteroffensive, as well as data on the state of Russian forces. It also includes sensitive material about Canada, China, Israel or South Korea.
The problem is mainly the messages that are extrapolated from the leaked material, such as the confirmation that the United States is spying on its allies, including Ukraine, or the estimate that Russia could win the war in Ukraine due to attrition due to ammunition shortages. and weapons of Ukraine and the limitations of its air defenses.
