Office of Public Affairs | Former Air National Guardsman Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison for Illegally Disclosing Classified National Defense Information

A former member of the US Air National Guard (USANG), Jack Douglas Teixeira, 22, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, was convicted today in federal court in Boston of storing and transmitting hundreds of pages of classified National Defense Information (NDI ), i.a. many documents designated as top secret on an online social media platform in 2022 and 2023. Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Teixeira was also barred from having contact with foreign agents.

In March, Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transfer of classified information relating to national defense. Teixeira was arrested in April 2023 and charged with a criminal complaint for storage and transmission of NDI and unauthorized removal and storage of classified documents or materials. He was subsequently indicted by a federal grand jury in Boston in June 2023. He has been in federal custody since his arrest.

“Jack Teixeira repeatedly shared classified national defense information on a social media platform in an attempt to impress anonymous friends on the Internet — instead, it has earned him a 15-year sentence in federal prison,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland. “Teixeira’s profound breach of trust threatened our country’s national security and that of our allies. This sentence demonstrates the seriousness of the obligation to protect our country’s secrets and the security of the American people.”

“This sentence is a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information: betray that trust and you will be held accountable,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Jack Teixeira’s criminal conduct placed our nation, our troops, and our allies at great risk. The FBI will continue to work diligently with our partners to protect classified information and ensure that those who turn their backs on their country face justice.”

“Mr. Teixeira is responsible for engaging in one of the most significant leaks of classified documents and information in the history of the United States, which resulted in unusually severe and long-lasting damage to the national security of the United States,” Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua S. Levy said for the District of Massachusetts. “He took advantage of his Top-Secret security clearance to share critical defense information online. In doing so, he exposed sensitive defense information involving our allies, putting our intelligence community and our troops at risk. It is critical that our classified information remain precisely it – classified. The leaking and distribution of this kind of information has significant and real consequences across the globe. This is disturbing behavior that will not go unnoticed and unchecked.”

Teixeira joined the USANG in September 2019. Until his arrest in 2023, he served with the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis USANG Base in Massachusetts as a cyber defense operations journeyman. Teixeira’s primary responsibility was to maintain and troubleshoot the classified workstations for other members of the 102nd Intelligence Wing. In order to do his job, Teixeira received a security clearance in 2021 with a top secret/sensitive information security clearance. From or around January 2022, Teixeira illegally retained and sent NDI classified as “TOP SECRET” or “SECRET” and/or Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI), on the social media platform Discord to persons not authorized to receive such information.

Teixeira used a secure workstation at the Otis USANG base to conduct hundreds of searches for classified documents containing NDI unrelated to his duties. On two separate occasions, Teixeira’s superiors warned him not to take notes on classified intelligence information and to stop conducting “deep dives” into classified intelligence information. Despite these warnings and his considerable training, Teixeira purposefully and repeatedly removed classified information and documents containing NDI without authorization from the secure facility where he worked. Teixeira subsequently transmitted the information by posting it on an online social media platform where it was forwarded by other users. Teixeira also posted images of hundreds of classified documents to a social media platform, almost all of which bore standard classification markings — including “SECRET,” “TOP SECRET” and SCI designations — indicating they contained highly classified U.S. government information. The documents and information that Teixeira illegally disseminated discussed a variety of topics, including descriptions of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and troop movements on a specific date. The information he stored and disseminated was derived from sensitive US intelligence, gathered through classified sources and methods.

Shortly before his arrest in April 2022, Teixeira took steps to conceal his revelations by destroying and disposing of his electronic devices, deleting his online accounts and encouraging his online acquaintances to do the same.

The FBI Washington and Boston Field Offices investigated the case. Valuable assistance was provided by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nadine Pellegrini, Jared C. Dolan and Jason A. Casey for the District of Massachusetts and Trial Attorney Christina A. Clark of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section prosecuted the case.