The Air National Guardsman who allegedly leaked dozens of classified documents onto a Discord chat had been doing it for twice as long as previously known, and to more people.
That’s according to a new report from the New York Times. Airman Jack Teixiera, already charged with leaking classified information to the smaller chat group, allegedly shared additional information to another Discord chat, with as many as 600 members, since February 2022. The information included details on both Ukrainian and Russian casualties in the war as well as details tracking Russian spies. Per the New York Times, the information was sourced from intelligence reports from the Central Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency, among others. The user profile on the second Discord server matches Teixeira.
Teixeira, 21, was arrested on April 13. He had been allegedly posting documents to a Discord group since October 2022, obtained through his work with the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. He apparently was sharing the information not as a whistleblower, but to apparently curry favor and win arguments with the roughly 50 or so members of the group chat.
Teixeira is currently facing charges under the Espionage Act. As of press time, no additional action has been taken regarding these newly discovered leaks. It is also unclear how Teixeira was able to share these documents online over such a long period of time without being discovered. According to the New York Times, images of the documents were posted and later deleted, but the user shared long write-ups of what the material contained as well. It’s not clear why he shared the information to this chat as well, as there is no immediate evidence of him trying to win an argument, but the user behind the leaks did write “I have a little more than open source info. Perks of being in a [United States Air Force] intel unit.”
The posts go back to just after Russia invaded Ukraine, with early posts discussing ongoing combat and detailing Russia’s pull back from Kyiv after it failed to take the capital. Posts continued for more than a year, ending only in March. Some of the posts were made to the chat apparently while on a military base.
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