16-Year Prison Sentence for Pentagon Document Leaker

Jack Teixeira, an Air Force employee accused of leaking Pentagon documents, has decided to cooperate with the investigation in exchange for a reduced sentence of 16 years in prison. Teixeira, a former member of the Air National Guard, pleaded guilty to six charges, including "willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information." He will serve between 11 and 16 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He has also been fined $50,000. The U.S. Attorney's Office agreed not to charge him with additional violations of the Espionage Act. Prosecutors announced that the leak exposed sensitive information to U.S. adversaries, including details about troop movements in Ukraine and plans by adversaries to attack U.S. forces serving abroad. It is noted that Teixeira comes from a military family and was stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, where he worked as an IT specialist responsible for military communications networks. He shared the documents on a Discord server and was arrested during a dramatic security operation in April 2023, which was broadcast live on television networks.