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Boston Globe

Jack Teixeira, leaker of classified military secrets, says in interview he ‘would have done it again'

Teixeira, speaking over the phone from federal prison, claimed he had been targeted by the Biden administration, arguing 'there are people who have done far worse things' with classified information who 'didn't get as bad of a treatment as I did.' 'I think that I was used as a sacrificial lamb, and I was crucified to be made of as an example,' he said in the interview. Related : Advertisement Teixeira, of Dighton, claimed the American people were being 'lied to' about the nature of military aid to Ukraine during its ongoing war with Russia. 'A lot of the things that the administration at the time was saying was wrong, it was misleading, it was outright false, or it was skewed, and essentially just, I wanted people to know exactly what was going on so that no one could say, 'Well, it was like this because the history book or the history textbook said it was,'' he said. Advertisement Teixeira, an I.T. specialist at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, admitted in federal court that, between January 2022 and April 2023, he posted highly classified documents on Discord, an online chat platform popular with gamers. He pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act, and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison. He was also An attorney for Teixeira filed an application for a pardon on Wednesday, according to 'Good Morning America.' Teixeira's mother said in the interview that her son was 'compelled to tell the truth" and that he 'didn't do it to harm the country.' Both she and Teixeira said they hoped Trump would approve the pardon. Teixeira added that Teixeira joined the Air Force National Guard at 18 and missed his high school graduation to attend basic training. He became isolated during the pandemic and formed friendships online, according to his lawyers. Prosecutors rejected that notion, saying that Teixeira exhibited 'an obsessive need to talk perhaps, not an obsessive need to tell the truth.' Material from previous Globe coverage was used. Advertisement Camilo Fonseca can be reached at