‘I'm a patriot': Pentagon secrets leaker Jack Teixeira defends actions in interview
Jack Teixeira, the now 23-year-old serving a 15-year prison sentence for leaking classified documents on Discord, told 'Good Morning America' in an interview published Thursday morning that he did not regret his actions, and he never intended to harm his country.
Teixeira, of North Dighton, was a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard who had access to top-secret documents as a cyber transport systems specialist at the Otis Air National Guard Base on Joint Base Cape Cod.
Last March, he pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense.
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani sentenced him to 15 years in prison.
In the interview with ABC News' Linsey Davis, Teixeira said he felt a need to educate the American people about the country's involvement in Russia's war with Ukraine.
'My intent was to educate the United States populist people about what was going on. It was not to harm the United States or the country because I love my nation. I'm a patriot,' he said. 'I did believe that I needed to educate the people about what was going on because I believe they were being lied to.'
He claimed the Biden administration was pushing false and misleading information about the war, and he wanted to show an 'unvarnished' look at what was taking place.
At the sentencing hearing last November, Teixeira apologized for his actions.
'I understand that all of the responsibility and consequences falls upon my shoulders alone,' he said. 'My behavior has created such a maelstrom.'
'I can't really sum up how contrite I am,' he added.
But in the interview with ABC, Teixeira struck a different tone.
Teixeira said the apology was aimed at family and friends, but he didn't regret leaking the documents, and would do it all again.
'I still believe in my actions,' he said. 'I've tortured myself over and over and over again about what would happen if I didn't do this, or what would happen if this and that. And in reality, it doesn't really matter.'
A lawyer representing Teixeira said at the hearing that his primary motivation was to share his experiences with a group of friends he found on Discord.
Yet Teixeira told Davis that was a 'secondary motivation.'
In the interview, Teixeira accused the Biden administration of politicizing his case. U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua S. Levy, a Biden appointee, prosecuted Teixeira's case.
'I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didn't get as bad of a treatment as I did,' he said. 'I think that I was used as a sacrificial lamb, and I was crucified to be made of as an example.'
In a press conference following Teixeira's sentencing, Levy said the full impact of his crime wouldn't be known for years.
Texeira put himself over his country, and in doing so violated one of the core tenets of public service, Levy said.
'Jack Teixeira made the deliberate choice day after day, week after week, year over a year, to share the nation's secrets that were entrusted to him and make them available to all comers,' he said. 'He was callous to the fact that he put our national security at risk.'
'Today, Mr. Teixeira has paid a very heavy price for the laws he broke, or for the incredible damage that he caused,' Levy continued.
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