Video After The Jump
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has emerged as a main person of interest in the disclosure of highly classified military documents was taken into custody Thursday by federal agents, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced.
Investigators believe that the guardsman, who specializes in intelligence, led the online chat group where the documents were posted. Garland identified the guardsman as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira & said he would be charged with the unauthorized removal of classified national defense information.
The emergence of Teixeira as the apparent primary suspect is bound to raise questions about how the highest-profile intelligence leak in years, one that continues to unfold with almost daily revelations of highly classified documents, could have been caused by such a young, low-ranking service member.
The Biden administration has been working to assess the diplomatic & national security consequences of the leaked documents since they were first reported last week. A top Pentagon spokesman told reporters earlier this week that the disclosures present a “very serious risk to national security,” & the Justice Department opened an investigation to identify the person responsible.
It’s possible the leak may have started on a site called Discord, a social media platform popular with people playing online games.
In one of those forums, originally created to talk about a range of topics, members would debate the war in Ukraine. According to one member of the chat, an unidentified poster shared documents that the poster claimed were classified, first typing them out with the poster’s own thoughts, then, as of a few months ago, uploading images of folded papers.
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