Suspect in Pentagon leaks case to appear in court for hearing on whether he is kept in jail until trial

CNN
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The Air National Guardsman accused of posting a trove of classified documents to social media will be back in court Wednesday for a hearing on whether he will be kept in jail.

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, is accused of posting classified intelligence – including sensitive information on the war in Ukraine – on the social media site Discord in a series of leaks that revealed the scope of US intelligence gathering on both its allies and adversaries.

On Wednesday, a judge will decide whether Teixeira should continue to be detained as he faces charges under the Espionage Act.

Prosecutors are expected to argue to a judge that Teixeira should stay behind bars during the course of his legal case. As part of their argument, prosecutors may disclose more details about Teixeira’s alleged actions to convince Magistrate Judge David Hennessy that Teixeira is either too dangerous to be released or that he poses a flight risk.

Teixeira has not yet entered a plea. He was arrested by the FBI last Thursday following a furious scramble by federal authorities to determine the identity of the leaker following reports that the classified documents had been sitting in a Discord chatroom.

Teixeira, an airman first class, was stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, where he worked on a classified computer network. He obtained a top secret security clearance in 2021.

According to charging documents, Teixeira began posting classified information to the Discord chatroom in December 2022, and he began uploading photos of the classified documents in January 2023.

The fact that the documents sat online for months before being discovered has revived questions about how classified information is handled across the government.

The Pentagon has limited access to classified materials in the wake of the leak, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has directed a 45-day review of classified intelligence handling across the Defense Department.

National Security Council Spokesman John Kirby said Tuesday that at least some of the classified documents leaked by Teixeira had been doctored or contained false information, but acknowledged that intelligence officials are still scrambling to get their arms around the vastness of the leak.

“We’re taking this seriously. We still don’t know the full scope of what’s out there, what has been disclosed inappropriately, and we want to get our hands around this matter,” Kirby told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. He added that Ukrainian officials “don’t see any impact to their future defensive and offensive operations in the weeks and months ahead.”