National Guard data leaker receives 15-year prison sentence.

Jack Teixeira, a former member of the Air National Guard, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act. He was accused of sharing "hundreds of pages" of classified military documents on the Discord platform. Among the leaked information were sensitive details about troop movements in Ukraine and previously unknown information regarding U.S. intelligence gathering in countries such as China, Russia, and South Korea.

While stationed at an airbase in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, Teixeira obtained a security clearance for "Top Secret//Sensitive Compartmented Information," essential for "maintaining and troubleshooting" classified workstations in the intelligence wing. According to the Department of Justice, he "used a secure workstation at the Otis Air National Guard Base to conduct hundreds of searches for classified documents that contained national defense information and that were not related to his duties."

The 22-year-old was arrested last year after authorities discovered he had shared classified information on a private Discord server called "Thug Shaker Central," which had around 20 active users. Initially, Teixeira shared written versions of the classified documents, but later began posting actual photographs of the materials, including some labeled as "Top Secret," as other community members were not paying enough attention to his posts. A report detailed that a series of digital evidence, including a distinctive mark on a granite countertop in his childhood home, connected Teixeira to the leaked material.

U.S. Acting Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Joshua S. Levy, stated that "Mr. Teixeira is responsible for participating in one of the most significant leaks of classified documents and information in U.S. history, resulting in exceptionally grave and lasting damage to the national security of the United States."