BOSTON—The man accused of leaking secret U.S. military materials will remain detained for at least two more weeks after his detention hearing was delayed on April 19.
A detention hearing for Jack Teixeira, 21, was delayed after lawyers representing Teixeira said they need more time to prepare a response to the government’s request to have the National Guard member held in detention as the case proceeds.
Brendan Kelly, one of the lawyers, said that the hearing should be pushed back two weeks. Government prosecutors did not oppose the request, which was granted by Magistrate Judge David Hennessy, who is overseeing the case at the moment.
A new hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Teixeira also waived his right to a preliminary hearing.
Teixeira briefly appeared in the U.S. courthouse in Boston on Wednesday. He was brought into the courtroom in an orange prison jumpsuit. Teixeira’s handcuffs were removed when he arrived at the defense table.
The judge asked Teixeira if he had voluntarily waived his right for a preliminary hearing, and Teixeira confirmed he had. The judge said Teixeira would continue to be held for now.
The handcuffs were placed back onto the defendant and he left the courtroom.
Arrest
Teixeira was arrested on April 13 on suspicion of obtaining and transmitting classified documents that began appearing online in late December 2022. He is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who was called up for federal duty in 2021.Teixeira has had top security clearance since that year and was involved in posting the documents to a social media platform, according to charging documents. Evidence uncovered in the investigation showed Teixeira accessed at work at least one of the documents that was later posted, an FBI agent said in an affidavit.
Teixeira has been charged with violating the Espionage Act, which bars keeping and transmitting classified national defense information without authorization.
The airman has not entered a plea and neither he nor his attorneys have spoken since he was taken into custody.
Teixeira initially retyped information from the documents but later started taking the materials home and taking pictures because he was concerned “he may be discovered making the transcriptions of text in the workplace,” a social media user, who was not identified, told authorities.
Billing records from the platform, believed to be Discord, matched Guard records for Teixeira, leading investigators to him.
The documents include materials on the Russia–Ukraine war, with some showing different death toll estimates than U.S. officials have given publicly. U.S. officials have said there are signs some of the documents were manipulated. It’s not clear how many documents were unlawfully retained, or posted online, in total.
The Department of Defense is still trying to figure that out, Sabrina Singh, a spokesperson, told reporters in a briefing this week.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other officials “continue to convene daily meetings to examine the scope and scale of this disclosure, as well as ensure that appropriate mitigation measures are being taken,” she said.
An internal assessment is looking at “what documents were disclosed and where they surfaced online,” Singh said, adding that “we’re going to continue to find docs online.”
The Air Force’s 102nd Intelligence Wing, where Teixeira was assigned, has been reassigned following his arrest, officials have said.
“The 102nd Intelligence Wing is not currently performing its assigned intelligence mission,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told The Epoch Times in an email. She said that the Air Force inspector general is investigating the unit’s “compliance with policy, procedures, and standards ... related to the release of national security information.”
