Federal law enforcement officials arrested a man they suspect to be responsible for leaking classified Pentagon documents that disclosed U.S. defense and intelligence information.
Who leaked the documents?
- The New York Times reported that federal investigators arrested a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman “who they believe is linked to a trove of leaked classified documents.”
- The Times first identified the man as Jack Teixeira, “a member of the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard” who “is tied to an online group where the leaked documents first appeared.”
CBS News reported that Attorney General Merrick Garland said FBI agents “took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident.”
Details to note: The Washington Post reported that the leaker, who is believed to be Teixeira, “is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic.”
The Post further reported that the leaker was part of a social media group that consisted of “roughly two dozen” men and boys on the popular platform Discord.
CNN reported that the leaker would post messages that “appeared to transcribe classified information from U.S. documents.”
The Discord leaker, who went by the name “OG,” would share several documents within a week. “Posting pictures to the server took less time. But it also exposed OG to greater risk. In the background of some images, they could see items and furniture that they recognized from the room where OG spoke to them via video on the Discord channel — the kind of clues that could prove useful for federal investigators,” according to National Review.