The Justice Department has released the criminal complaint against Massachusetts Air National Guard Airman First Class Jack Teixeira.
We are keeping this short, since the FBI special agent on point informed a Federal Court of probable cause that Airman Teixceira had violated two parts of: Title 18 federal code: Section 793, which falls under the Espionage Act Section 1924. This may be the summary charges that could be issued for others accused of “leaking,” so we pass it along now to help keep track.
We are not going to use Jack’s picture. The one being displayed is depicted backwards and we do not wish to add to the stack of irrelevancy.
Looking back, the Espionage Act is a World War I-era law engineered by the Wilson Administration. It makes mishandling of national-defense information a criminal offense. It was enacted before the modern classification system was established in WW II and the Cold War for protecting government secrets. Under Section 793, Teixeira is accused of illegally retaining and transmitting information — a conviction carrying a prison sentence of up to 10 years per violation. So far there is discussion of dozens of disclosures, so the 21-year-old NCO could be facing the equivalent of life in jail if convicted on individual accounts for the messages he stole. There is precedent for the use of these statutes against others now.
More to come, of course, and who stole the information once Jack posted it to his group. There of course is the presumption of innocence, and a long and probably lurid trial to come. So that is as far as we are permitted to go at the moment. There will doubtless be more.
Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
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