Judge to weigh whether suspected Pentagon leaker should stay jailed before trial

Jack Teixeira, the airman suspected of leaking classified Pentagon documents online, is due in federal court Friday afternoon for a hearing over whether he should be remain behind bars until trial.

Prosecutors submitted a filing earlier this week urging the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts urging the judge overseeing the case to keep Teixeira detained, saying foreign adversaries would “salivate” at the prospect of helping him evade the U.S. government. Teixeira’s lawyers submitted their own filing asking the court to release him.

The 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman has been charged under the Espionage Act with unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents. He has pleaded not guilty and faces significant prison time if convicted. 

Prosecutors suggested Teixeira’s character isn’t what he presented in the military hiring process. Teixeira’s attorney claimed Teixeira’s case can’t be compared to other Espionage Act cases, and argued that Teixeira “remained at his mother’s home and peacefully submitted to arrest upon the arrival of law enforcement” when he was arrested. 

Federal authorities had been searching for the origin of classified records that first surfaced on the social media site Discord, revealing sensitive government secrets about the United States’ interests abroad, including detailed information about the war in Ukraine.

The government alleges that Teixeira, who held a clearance to view top secret and sensitive compartmented information, obtained the sensitive government documents in early 2023.