BOSTON: A US airman was sentenced on Tuesday to 15 years in prison on a charge of leaking online highly classified military documents revealing that Washington spied on its European allies.

Jack Teixeira, 22, was sentenced by judge Indira Talwani in Boston after pleading guilty in March to perpetrating what prosecutors called “one of the most significant and consequential violations” of US anti-espionage law ever committed.

He apologised in court for his actions. “I’m sorry for all of the harm that I’ve brought and that I’ve caused,” Teixeira, a member of Massachusetts Air National Guard, told Indira Talwani during the hearing.

The judge said that despite extensive training on how to handle classified documents and warnings about the penalties for disclosing them, Teixeira “posted on the internet, on Discord, hundreds of documents over a period of a year”. “The fact that others did not do more to stop you is truly unfortunate,” she told Teixeira.

Teixeira, who has remained in custody since his arrest in April last year, pleaded guilty to six counts of wilful retention and transmission of classified information relating to national defence over a leak last year of a trove of classified records to a group of gamers on the Discord messaging app.

Ahead of his sentencing, Teixeira also agreed to resolve separate military charges brought by the US air force that he obstructed justice and failed to obey a lawful order, defence lawyer Michael Bachrach said in court.

The air force declined to confirm a deal had been reached, while noting Teixeira currently faces court-martial in March.

Published in Dawn, November 14th, 2024