The Justice Department is claiming that Jack Teixeira, the Air National Guard member accused of sharing classified Pentagon documents in an online group chat, kept an arsenal of firearms, lobbed “racial threats,” and envisaged carrying out mass murder. In an 18-page memo, released the night before the airman’s Thursday detention hearing, Justice Department prosecutors said they believe that Teixeira should be held indefinitely, arguing that he poses a flight risk and a danger to the public. They also theorized that he might still possess information that would be of “tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States,” per the court filing. Teixeira’s hearing is before a federal magistrate judge in Worcester, Massachusetts.
While his alleged infatuation with firearms and history of racist remarks were reported before his arrest, prosecutors for the Justice Department painted a far more nefarious portrait of the 21-year-old than previously known. They alleged that Teixeira kept a stash of firearms and tactical gear in his bedroom, including a Kalashnikov-style weapon, shotguns, and handguns. Prosecutors claimed that in a social media post made last year, he wrote of killing a “ton of people” and picking off “weak minded” members of society. In line with that desire, Teixeira allegedly fantasized earlier this year about driving an “assassination van” into a crowded residential or urban area and shooting from the vehicle.
Other findings in the memo date back to Teixeira’s time in high school; he was suspended in March 2018 after a classmate overheard him allegedly making racist threats and discussing various weaponry. (Allen Franco, a lawyer representing Teixeira, said in a filing that the situation was “thoroughly investigated” at the time and that his client had received a psychiatric evaluation. He added that Teixeira was permitted to return to school after a “handful” of days.) This history was so well known that it was even flagged by local police when they denied Teixeira’s application for a firearms identification card.
Teixeira still managed to obtain a security clearance and serve as an information technology specialist for the Massachusetts Air National Guard. In February of last year—just days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine—he allegedly began using that position to surreptitiously access “hundreds of classified documents” unrelated to his work. “There is no allegation in the affidavit that Mr. Teixeira had any intent for these documents to become widely available on the internet or desired to disrupt the geopolitical affairs of the United States,” his attorney wrote in his filing. “Thus, there is no reason to suggest that, if released, Mr. Teixeira has any motivation, desire, or current ability to commit any actions like those alleged in the complaint affidavit or in the government’s supplemental motion for detention.”
Prosecutors further bolstered their call for Teixeira’s detention by alleging that he took “a series of obstructive steps” prior to his April 13 arrest, including the attempted destruction and disposal of his tablet, Xbox gaming console, and laptop.
The airman has been charged with two separate counts related to the unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified materials that covered the Russia-Ukraine war and intelligence the US had gathered on allied nations. The receptacle of choice for his document dumps was Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers, where he fostered a small, tight-knit community. The files were subsequently circulated onto other parts of the internet by members of Teixeira’s Discord group. (Though, in a recent piece, The New York Times reported that Teixeira allegedly posted classified materials to another Discord server that had hundreds of members.) The Justice Department will likely seek an indictment before a grand jury.
Caleb Ecarma
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