US arrests suspect in leak of classified military documents about Ukraine

The FBI has arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira for leaking classified documents. Source: Facebook

Many US media reported that on the evening of April 13 (local time), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira, a member of the Air Force Guard, at his home in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on charges related to the leak of classified documents over the Internet over the past few months.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said Teixeira, 21, is being investigated for “unlawful transfer, storage, and dissemination of classified national defense information.”

Teixeira, who worked full-time in the US military intelligence system, had previously been stripped of his security clearance and access to classified government information, according to an internal memo obtained by Fox News.

In an earlier official statement, the National Guard confirmed that it was aware of “the possible role of a Massachusetts Air Guard member in the leak of highly classified information” from the Pentagon, and said it considered the matter extremely serious and would provide full support to the investigation.

Dozens of photos of the documents have been circulated on Twitter, Telegram, Discord and other social media sites in recent days.

Some of the documents are believed to have been circulating for weeks, even months, before public attention began to surface.

US officials have yet to publicly confirm the authenticity of the leaked information.

However, the leaked documents are said to relate to the conflict in Ukraine and secret assessments of US allies.

US national security agencies and the Justice Department are investigating the incident, assessing the damage to national security and relations with allies and other partner countries, including Ukraine.

US officials say security agencies are reviewing how sensitive information is shared within the government and responding to diplomatic fallout from the release of sensitive documents from unknown sources.

Previously, The Washington Post reported on April 12 that a young gun enthusiast was the first person to share sensitive US government documents on social media.

According to the newspaper, two anonymous members of a group active on the social network Discord - a chat application for smartphones and computers - said a male subject nicknamed "OG" posted hundreds of pages of documents on this social network.

OG claimed to work at a US military base and brought documents home.

The two Discord members added that "OG" had been regularly posting material to the group's Discord account of 24 people "interested in guns and military equipment" for months.

Some information in the documents is marked "NOFORN", meaning it is not to be shared with foreigners.

According to VNA