Accused National Security Leaker Jack Teixeira To Remain Jailed: Judge

WORCESTER, MA — A federal judge in Worcester Friday ordered accused national security leaker Jack Teixeira to remain in jail as his case proceeds.

Teixeira, 21, a North Dighton resident and former Air National Guardsman stationed at Joint Base Cape Cod, has been incarcerated in Plymouth since his arrest in mid-April. Federal prosecutors say Teixeira violated the Espionage Act by publishing national security materials in an online chat group.

Prosecutors had previously asked a judge to keep Teixeira in jail prior to his trial because he posed a flight risk and may still be keeping information for hostile nations that could "offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States," according to court documents.

Teixeira went to federal court in Boston after his arrest, but the case has been transferred to federal court in Worcester.

Teixeira is accused of leading a gaming chat group made up of up to 30 young men and teenagers where he distributed leaked documents revealing details of the U.S. spying on Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, secret assessments of Ukraine’s combat power and intelligence gathering on America’s allies.

Prosecutors say Teixeira kept an arsenal of weapons in his bedroom at his home with his mother and stepfather in North Dighton. He also made regular comments about violence and murder on social media, including musings about wanting to “kill a [expletive] ton of people” because it would be "culling the weak-minded." He also planned to convert a minivan into an "assassination van," prosecutors said.

Teixeira was discharged from the Air National Guard following his arrest.

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