Jack Teixeira may still have access to classified documents

Federal prosecutors are asking a judge to keep Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira behind bars in his Pentagon leaks case, arguing that he could cause “extraordinary” damage by releasing even more classified documents.

In court papers filed late Wednesday, the Justice Department lawyers wrote that releasing the 21-year-old suspect while he awaits trial would pose a grave threat to the US national security as investigators are still trying to determine whether he kept any copies of classified files, including ones that have not been made public yet.

“There simply is no condition or combination of conditions that can ensure the Defendant will not further disclose additional information still in his knowledge or possession,” prosecutors wrote. “The damage the Defendant has already caused to the US national security is immense. The damage the Defendant is still capable of causing is extraordinary.”

Prosecutors said that he might still have access to material that could aid foreign adversaries.

Teixeira has “accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States,” prosecutors said.

Teixeira is due back in federal court in Worcester, Massachusetts, later Thursday for a detention hearing. Prosecutors said that the defendant’s lawyers have hinted that they will ask the judge to release him to his father’s home.

So far, Teixeira’s defense team has not filed a motion seeking his release pending trial.

Teixeira, who worked as a cyber transport systems specialist with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested earlier this month and charged under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention and transmission of classified national defense information. He has been in lockup since April 13 and has yet to enter a plea.

The 21-year-old is suspected of sharing hundreds of highly classified Pentagon documents concerning national security and the war in Ukraine on the gaming platform Discord over the course of at least several months — and possibly even longer than that.

The New York Times reported last week that a Discord user with a profile matching Teixeira’s allegedly began posting copies of documents in a chat room as far back as February 2022.

In arguing for Teixeira’s continued detention, prosecutors wrote that the guardsman posed a danger to the public because he owned multiple guns and repeatedly had “detailed and troubling discussions about violence and murder” on Discord.

In February, he told another person that he was tempted to make a minivan into an “assassination van,” prosecutors wrote.

Prosecutors also revealed that Teixeira was suspended during high school when a classmate overheard him talking about Molotov cocktails and other weapons.

Teixeira’s classmates previously discussed how the military-obsessed teen made them feel uneasy by showing up to school wearing camouflage, carrying around textbooks about weapons and making racially charged remarks.

Prosecutors alleged in their filing that as news outlets began reporting on the Pentagon leaks earlier this month, Teixeira tried to destroy evidence. Authorities who searched a dumpster at his home found a smashed laptop, tablet and Xbox gaming console.

Investigators have not revealed a possible motive behind the leaks. Members of the Discord group have described Teixeira as someone looking to show off to his online friends, rather than being a whistleblower with a political agenda.

The leaks shocked the military community and sparked an international uproar, raising questions about the US’s ability to protect its classified information.  

The Pentagon has said it would conduct an internal review of access to sensitive intelligence to prevent a similar breach in the future.

With Post wires