Unauthorized appropriation and retention of classified documents, and retention and dissemination of information affecting national security. These are the charges of which 21-year-old National Guard soldier Jack Teixeira was formally charged this Friday at a preliminary hearing in a Boston court. Teixeira was arrested on Thursday at his home in the town of North Dighton, in the State of Massachusetts, as a suspect in the largest leak of US military secrets since the Wikileaks scandal in 2010. The charges against him may assume a sentence of 10 years in prison each, but if aggravated factors are applied or other accusations are added, Teixeira could be sentenced to a longer sentence if convicted. Chelsea Manning, author of the leak of more than 700,000 documents published by Wikileaks, was sentenced to 35 years in prison before being pardoned by the then president, Barack Obama. At Teixeira’s hearing, a federal judge ordered that the military remain in the custody of the authorities at least until next Wednesday, when a new hearing will be held. Prosecutor Nadine Pellegrini had requested that he not be granted bail. Teixeira had arrived at the courthouse handcuffed and dressed in the inmates’ beige uniform and a black T-shirt. During the brief hearing he remained seated in the dock, next to his lawyer. He only spoke twice, when asked if he understood that he had the right to remain silent, and to confirm a form about his financial situation, which entitles him to help with his legal costs. On both occasions he said a concise: “Yes.” When the trial ended and the officers escorting him took him away in handcuffs, a man in the front row addressed him: “I love you, Jack.” The young recruit replied: “I love you too, dad.” The Department of Justice considers that the young soldier was the leader of a private group on Discord, an internet platform, in which information on video games, weapons of fire and meme Since December, according to the investigators of the case, Teixeira had begun to disclose in the group, called Thug Shaker Central, also highly classified information of all kinds. Most of it related to the war in Ukraine, but also about other sensitive points on the planet, from North Korea to the Middle East. The leak, and the content that has been revealed in those texts, has sparked tensions between Washington and several of its allies, including Egypt, Israel and South Korea. It has also highlighted the shortcomings suffered by the Russian forces and the extent to which Washington has managed to penetrate the intelligence services of that country, something that could precipitate Moscow to stop that flow of information and endanger the sources used.Join to EL PAÍS to follow all the news and read without limits.Subscribe
