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It’s been two weeks since 21-year-old Jack Teixeira was arrested in shorts in front of his mother’s house, accused of leaking a trove of classified documents over a period of months to a closed online community on Discord, a social media platform popular with video gamers.
A federal judge in Massachusetts was considering whether Teixeira should stay behind bars while he awaits trial. Teixeira faces charges under the Espionage Act.
Prosecutors said the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman posed a flight risk and, citing online comments and an “arsenal of weapons” to which he apparently had access, a danger to the community.
Prosecutors also allege that the scope of information taken by Teixeira “far exceeds” what is publicly known.
Defense lawyers said Teixeira never meant for the classified documents to be widely seen. Classified information and photos were online in the chatroom for months before being publicly discovered.
His lawyers asked for Teixeira to be released into the custody of his father, a veteran and former correctional officer.
There are still so many questions about this case, including how Teixeira, just a few years out of high school, got so much classified information from a secure location on Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts.
The 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron there has stopped conducting its intelligence mission. Two leaders at the base have been temporarily suspended, according to an Air Force announcement Wednesday.
I talked to Zachary Cohen, CNN’s national security and justice reporter, who has been all over the Teixeira developments, and along with Hannah Rabinowitz, wrote…
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