Pentagon leaks suspect to remain detained as he awaits trial
Last edited Fri May 19, 2023, 05:05 PM - Edit history (1)
Source: CNN Politics
Worcester, Massachusetts CNN — Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guardsman who is accused of posting a trove of classified documents to social media, will be detained while he awaits trial, a federal judge ruled Friday while saying the suspect has a “lack of integrity.” Magistrate Judge David Hennessy had been considering whether Teixeira would continue to be held behind bars for weeks, as prosecutors and defense lawyers repeatedly battled over whether the 21-year-old Massachusetts native posed a continued threat to national security.
“What the record at this point shows is a profound breach of the defendant’s word that he would protect information and the security of the United States and its allies,” Hennessy said during a hearing Friday. The decision is a major win for prosecutors, who have argued that the airman callously handled highly sensitive national security information during his short tenure in the National Guard. In delivering his ruling, Hennessy stressed that Teixeira put countless people in the US and abroad “at risk” in allegedly leaking the documents.
“Who did he put at risk? You can make a list as long as a phone book: soldiers, medical personnel … Ukrainian personnel, Ukrainian soldiers,” Hennessy said. “We don’t know how many people he put at risk. I’m not making any judgment on this information … but the government has said if you disclose this information, you put the United States serious risk.” “And the defendant’s response to that was, ‘IDGAF,’” the judge said, invoking language Teixeira used in messages discussing leaking the documents.
Teixeira was arrested on April 14 and has been charged under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials. Teixeira has not yet entered a formal plea. His defense lawyers have argued he didn’t expect classified information that he posted on Discord to be further spread around the internet.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/19/politics/jack-teixeira-detention-hearing/index.html
Article updated.
Original article -
Magistrate Judge David Hennessy had been considering whether Teixeira would continue to be held behind bars for weeks, as prosecutors and defense lawyers repeatedly battled over whether the 21-year-old Massachusetts native posed a continued threat to national security. “What the record at this point shows is a profound breach of the defendant’s word that he would protect information and the security of the United States and its allies,” Hennessy said during a hearing Friday.
Teixeira was arrested on April 14 and has been charged under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal of classified information and defense materials. Teixeira has not yet entered a formal plea. His defense lawyers have argued he didn’t expect classified information that he posted on Discord to be further spread around the internet.
In recent court documents arguing for Teixeira’s continued detention, prosecutors said that new evidence in the government’s investigation into him “belies the defendant’s efforts to minimize his criminal conduct and undercuts the defendant’s claim that he can be trusted to adhere to conditions of release imposed by the court.
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