Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira to face military court martial charges
Teixeira — who was arrested last April after allegedly sharing classified intelligence on the social media platform Discord — is being charged with disobeying a direct order and obstructing justice under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, an Air Force spokesperson said. The Air Force requested the new charges against Teixeira in May and the charges were officially referred on July 2.
The charges allege that Teixeira intentionally disobeyed an order telling him to “cease and desist” from accessing information not pertaining to his duties as a cyber systems journeyman in the Air Force National Guard.
CNN has previously reported that three internal Air Force memos revealed multiple instances in which his leadership observed and warned that he was inappropriately accessing classified information.
The charges also say that between March 1, 2023, and April 13, 2023, Teixeira disposed “of an iPad, computer hard drive, and cell phone, with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself,” and on April 7, 2023, directed another person to “to delete Discord messages” sent by himself, the Air Force spokesperson said on Thursday.
Teixeira was arrested on April 14 last year and charged under the Espionage Act. The documents shared by Teixeira online included a wide range of classified information, including internal assessments of the Russia-Ukraine war and a document discussing a “plot by a foreign adversary to targeted United States forces abroad.”
CNN previously reported that Teixeira’s final sentence is expected to be decided by a federal judge in September. His court martial trial will be held at Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, the Air Force spokesperson said, but the date has yet to be determined.
Rachel VanLandingham, a former US Air Force judge advocate and current law professor at Southwestern Law School, told CNN that while Teixeira should face punishment for the “damning” impact he had on national security, the court martial charges are “abuse of the entire system.”
“He’s already pleaded guilty in a US federal trial court to very, very serious espionage charges, and he’ll be sentenced accordingly,” she said. “But why it feels they want to go after him and squish him down some more is emblematic of the abuse in the military justice system.”
While technically the UCMJ charges do not violate double jeopardy, which keeps someone from being charged twice for the same crime, VanLandingham said that in a “values-based” sense, “of course it does.”
“The Air Force was grossly negligent in how they handled this. He should never have been allowed the access he was given” to classified information, she said. “They’re trying to detract from their own screw-ups and lack of appropriate security protocol.”
More than a dozen people — including the commander of Teixeira’s unit, the 102nd Intelligence Wing — were disciplined in the fallout of the intelligence leak after an Air Force investigation found they “intentionally failed” to report concerns about Teixeira’s behavior.
The ongoing case surrounding Teixeira has raised questions about the role of politics in military justice, as some argue that the additional charges against him are an attempt to make an example out of him.
The allegations against Teixeira involve not only disobedience and obstruction of justice but also potential misuse of his position, which falls under the broader umbrella of political and ethical conduct in the military.
