The Massachusetts Air National Guard member accused of stealing and leaking classified documents is expected to change his plea to guilty on Monday.
The case has made national headlines as Jack Teixeira could face decades in prison. But that could change if he changes his plea to guilty, which is expected at a hearing at a federal courthouse in Boston on Monday. He previously pleaded not guilty in the case against him.
The 22-year-old is accused of sharing classified military documents about the war in Ukraine and other sensitive topics on social media.
Teixeira had been working at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod since 2019. He was arrested by the FBI at his home in Dighton last April.
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Authorities say Teixeira, who enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, began sharing military secrets on the platform Discord around January 2023 - first typing out classified documents and eventually sharing photographs of documents that were marked as secret and top secret. Teixeira worked as a “cyber transport systems specialist,” essentially an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks.
Prosecutors say he did receive warnings from his superiors about the improper viewing of classified materials, but continued to leak documents.
He was indicted on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. That carries a sentence of 60 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.5 million.
But NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne says that is likely to be much less under a plea deal.
“What we do know is the likelihood that it will be far less than if he went to trial, lost and was convicted and he could have spent the better part of his life in prison under those circumstances. One would only imagine that the plea arrangement envisions a far less significant sentence," Michael Coyne explained.
We anticipate an update from the U.S. Attorney's Office Monday afternoon, after the hearing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
