American pilot sentenced to 15 years in prison

Jack Teixeira, a US Air National Guardsman who leaked Pentagon documents last year in one of the highest-profile intelligence cases in recent years, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Teixeira, 22, pleaded guilty to knowingly storing and transmitting national defense information in March.

While working at an Air National Guard base, Teixeira obtained materials including maps, satellite images and intelligence on American allies, then posted those documents to an online platform popular with gamers.

Among the documents he shared was classified information about the war in Ukraine.

Prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to sentence Teixeira to 16 and a half years in prison. His defense lawyers asked for an 11-year sentence.

In their request for a lenient sentence, Teixeira’s lawyers argued in court that the airman was the target of bullying while attending high school and his military unit, and that he had suffered from isolation.

Meanwhile, prosecutors argued for a longer prison term, saying the airman had “committed one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history”.

“Teixeira understood the risk to his country and did it anyway,” prosecutors told Judge Talwani on Tuesday.

Passing sentence, Judge Talwani told Teixeira: “You are young and you have a future ahead of you, but this is such a serious crime.”

Teixeira apologized to the court and said he understood that “all responsibility and consequences fall on my shoulders alone,” according to reporters in court in Boston.

Teixeira began with a small group of gun and military enthusiasts on a Discord server or chatroom in late 2022. While the documents initially remained in that chatroom, the information was later redistributed on more public channels.

The documents were later picked up by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and military bloggers.

Teixeira enlisted in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, a reserve of the United States Air Force, in 2019. In that role, he held top secret security clearance.

To get that approval, Teixeira signed a “lifetime binding nondisclosure agreement” acknowledging that “unauthorized disclosure of protected information may result in criminal charges,” according to court documents.

Teixeira’s leak prompted the Pentagon to examine its systems for handling classified information.

This is a developing story and will be updated