Leak of Pentagon documents: Teixeira agreed to plea deal and 16 years in prison
Had he not agreed, he would have faced life in prison
Jack Teixeira, a former member of the 102nd Air National Guard Intelligence Unit in Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to leaking classified Pentagon documents and agreed to a 16-year prison term in exchange for prosecutors dropping more serious espionage charges, the BBC reports.
Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to six charges, including intentionally storing and transmitting information relating to national defence.
Under the terms of the agreement, he will be sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison and a $50,000 fine. He will also be required to help intelligence officials assess the extent and impact of the leak.
Teixeira was arrested in April last year on suspicion of involvement in the largest leak of US classified documents in a decade, some of which related to the war in Ukraine.
The documents, in particular, indicated US concerns about Ukraine's military capabilities and suggested that Washington might be spying on its allies, as well as containing other sensitive information.
Teixeira, who was 21 years old at the time of his arrest, was running a small closed group on the popular gamer platform Discord, where he began uploading secret files in late 2022. They later spread across the Internet.
On Monday, when asked by a federal judge in Boston whether he knew the documents were classified, Teixeira replied: "Yes, your honour."
If he had been convicted of espionage, Teixeira could have received a life sentence.
The most serious part of the leak was detailed reports on the preparation and equipment of Ukraine's counter-offensive. The documents contained maps, satellite images, and information about the equipment provided to Ukraine by its Western allies.
One of the documents stated that Ukraine did not have enough forces for a large and successful offensive, and that it could only lead to "moderate territorial gains" and heavy losses. The document is dated early February 2023.
Background. Following the leak of documents on the vulnerability of Ukraine's air defence, the United States provided a package of assistance with surface-to-air missiles.
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