Baby-faced Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira copped a plea deal Monday that could land him more than 16 years behind bars for committing one of the most serious national security breaches in years.
The disgraced former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, 22, entered federal court in Boston, Mass., shackled and dressed in an orange jail jumpsuit and nodded to his family before the proceeding, according to a Washington Post reporter on X.
Teixiera then pleaded guilty to all six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information against him — charges that could have ended with him serving up to 60 years in prison.
Prosecutors have said the explosive case was not about espionage but instead a badly misguided low-level airman who wanted to impress his online gaming buddies, boasting he had top-security clearance on “stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China,” the New York Times reported.
But the risk posed by Teixiera — who led a chat room on Discord that he dubbed “Thug Shaker Central” — was grave, the feds said.
Among the data he was accused of sharing were top-secret Pentagon documents detailing intelligence assessments of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including “how the equipment would be transferred, and how the equipment would be used upon receipt,” a federal indictment shows.
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