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Members of the US Air National Guard accused of leaking classified military documents have a history of making violent threats, using government computers to research mass shootings and trying to destroy evidence of alleged crimes, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
In a 48-page filing, the Justice Department said 21-year-old Jack Teixeira should be detained pending trial, saying violent rhetoric coupled with an apparent attempt to destroy evidence “poses a flight risk and is dangerous.”
Prosecutors will present their arguments for detention to a U.S. magistrate judge in Worcester, Mass., Thursday afternoon.
Teixeira’s attorney has not commented on the case, and is expected to argue at Thursday’s hearing that he should not be held in custody before the trial.
The filing, which also includes photos of the suspect’s bedroom from an FBI search of his home, said that in July 2022 he used a government computer to search for famous mass shootings using search terms such as “Uvalde,” “Ruby Ridge” and “Las Vegas shooting.”
While searching his home, the FBI found a broken tablet computer, laptop and game console inside a trash can. In addition, prosecutors said they found evidence that Teixeira ordered other online users to “delete all messages.”
Teixeira was charged earlier this month with one count of violating the Espionage Act related to the unauthorized copying and transmission of sensitive defense material, and another charge related to the unauthorized removal of defense material to an unauthorized location.
If convicted, prosecutors said he faces up to 25 years in prison.
The most serious breach since WikiLeaks
The leaked document at the heart of the investigation is believed to be the most serious breach of US security since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010. The Pentagon called the leak a “deliberate crime.”
Prosecutors said in a detention memo that Teixeira in February 2022 began accessing hundreds of confidential documents unrelated to his work, and began posting some confidential information on social media around December 2022.
“The damage that the defendants have done to US national security is immense. The damage that the defendants are still capable of doing is extraordinary,” the memo said.
The secret documents provide a wide range of classified information about allies and enemies, with details ranging from Ukraine’s air defenses to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.
The history of the problem
Aside from evidence that Teixeira tried to suppress evidence and influence witnesses in the case, prosecutors said he had a troubled history dating back to his teenage years.
When he was 18, he said, his application for a firearms identification card was rejected because he said his high school years involved “weapons, including Molotov cocktails, guns at school, and racial threats.”
He has also made harsh comments about murder on social media, including one post in November 2022 in which he said that if he could, he would “kill a lot of people” because it would “waste a weak mind.”
WATCH | Teixeira is accused of leaking secret documents:
The man accused of leaking some of the classified US military documents has been charged in court as questions are raised about how the 21-year-old pilot was able to access, delete and transmit so many secrets.
On Feb. 10, 2023, Teixeira asked users for suggestions on what type of gun could be easily operated from the back of a parked SUV against “targets on sidewalks or patios,” according to the filing.
Prosecutors said they also found evidence that Teixeira admitted to others online that the information they sent him was classified.
In a chatroom message exchange included in the file, Teixeira was asked whether the information he sent was classified.
He replied: “Everything I have told you so far.”
In a filing Wednesday, prosecutors said: “There are no conditions of release that can be set that will ensure future appearances in court proceedings or the safety of the community…. He must be detained.”
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