Federal prosecutors will urge a judge Thursday to keep behind bars a Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents, arguing he may still have access to secret national defense information he could expose.
In court papers filed late Wednesday, the Justice Department lawyers said releasing 21-year-old Jack Teixeira from jail while he awaits trial would be a grave threat to U.S. national security. Investigators are still trying to determine whether he kept any physical or digital copies of classified information, including files that haven’t already surfaced publicly, they wrote.
Prosecutors said in their filing that Teixeira’s attorneys have indicated they will urge the judge to release him to his father’s home. As of late Wednesday, Teixeira’s attorneys hadn’t filed court papers arguing for his release. In describing Teixeira as a danger to the community, prosecutors wrote that the suspect, who owned multiple guns, repeatedly had “detailed and troubling discussions about violence and murder” on the platform where authorities say he shared the documents. In February, he told another person that he was tempted to make a minivan into an “assassination van,” prosecutors wrote.
Teixeira’s detention hearing was supposed to be last week but was delayed at the last minute after defense attorneys said they needed more time to “address the issues presented by the government’s request for detention.” Teixeira, who has been in jail since his April 13 arrest, did briefly appear in court in Boston last week to waive his right to a preliminary hearing.
The Justice Department has said its investigation is continuing, and the Pentagon has said it would conduct its own review of access to sensitive intelligence to prevent a similar leak in the future.
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