US intelligence scandal

Massive data leak: mole pleads guilty

Teixeira appeared before a court in Boston in April 2023, with a sketch artist capturing the moment.(Bild: AP)

A young member of the US military has been charged with a massive intelligence scandal. He has now pleaded guilty at a hearing in the state of Massachusetts, according to US media reports. Last June, Jack Teixeira had pleaded not guilty.

However, according to media reports, the 22-year-old has since entered into an agreement with the public prosecutor's office, under the terms of which he now faces a prison sentence of eleven to 16 years. Teixeira was arrested in April 2023.

Disclosure of secret information
A federal grand jury indicted him on six counts of intentionally retaining and disclosing classified national defense information. According to the Ministry of Justice, he originally faced up to ten years in prison in each of the cases.

Teixeira joined the National Guard in September 2019 and was officially cleared to view top-secret government documents in 2021.

Documents published in chat room
From January 2022, the IT specialist is said to have deliberately published information classified as "secret" and "top secret" in a closed chat room on the Discord platform, which is popular with video gamers. From there, it spread across the internet until the authorities and media became aware of it. The leak only became public in spring 2023.