BOSTON — A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who has been accused of leaking hundreds of classified documents online is expected to plead guilty in his federal case, according to court documents.
Prosecutors asked a judge on Thursday to schedule a change of a plea hearing, according to The Associated Press. The hearing is expected to take place on Monday in Boston, the Washington Post reported.
The classified documents were leaked on the messaging app Discord, according to Reuters.
Jack Teixeira, 21, had pleaded not guilty.
The leaked classified documents reportedly had information about the war in Russia and Ukraine, China’s spy drones, North Korea’s plans for developing nuclear weapons and issues in the Middle East, the Post reported.
Teixeira was arrested in April 2023, and charged with six counts of illegal retention and transmission of national defense information, the Post reported. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
He has been in prison since he was arrested, the AP reported.
Teixeira was granted a top-secret security clearance in 2021 as part of his work for the U.S. Air National Guard, officials said in court records unsealed Friday.
Since 2021, he also had “sensitive compartmented access (SCI) to other highly classified programs,” according to court records.
To get top secret clearance, Teixeira would have had to sign a non-disclosure agreement that warned him of possible criminal charges if he shared any protected information.
Teixeira enlisted in the U.S. Air National Guard in September 2019 as an E-1 rank, Since May 2022, he has been serving as an E-3/airman first class at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts. As of February, he has been a cyber defense operations journeyman.
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