The suspected Pentagon leaker, a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, was arrested on Thursday, according to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“Today the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira in connection with an investigation into an alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information,” Garland said during a press briefing.
“Teixeira is an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard. FBI agents took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident. He will have an initial appearance at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. I want to thank the FBI, the Justice Department prosecutors, and our colleagues at the Department of Defense for their diligent work on this case,” he added.
“This investigation is ongoing, we will share more information at the appropriate time,” Garland said.
Hours before the arrest was announced, the New York Times reported that Teixeira was the leader of an online group where the classified Pentagon documents first appeared.
The documents contained classified intelligence, at least some of which appeared to come from the Joint Chiefs’ Directorate of Intelligence’s daily brief, which is shared digitally to thousands in the intelligence community every day. A source told Breitbart News its distribution was curtailed after the leak, and the Pentagon has since confirmed that its distribution has been changed.
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