Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman convicted of federal offenses for leaking sensitive information online, pleaded guilty Thursday to a military charge of obstructing justice, a spokesperson for his family confirmed to ABC News.
A military court-martial convened this week at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts on charges alleging Teixeira violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
Teixeira pleaded guilty to the obstruction charge at the court-martial on Thursday, his family spokesperson confirmed. A second charge of disobeying orders was dropped as part of a plea agreement, which calls for dishonorable discharge and no confinement, according to the spokesperson.
An undated picture shows Jack Douglas Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the U.S. Air National Guard, who was arrested by the FBI, over his alleged involvement in leaks online of classified documents, posing for a selfie at an unidentified location.
Social Media Website via Reuters
Teixeira said he shared classified information with the public in a “brief moment of regret,” though he largely defended his actions and called himself a “proud American and a patriot” in remarks to the court ahead of his sentencing.
“It was my intent to expose and correct the lies manufactured and perpetuated by the Biden administration and force-fed to the American people by the mainstream media,” he said, according to a statement obtained by ABC News.
He said a “fraud was being perpetuated upon the American people” regarding the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and he “obstructed justice only to protect the people who now know the truth about a fraudulent Biden presidency.”
“If I saved even one American, Russian or Ukrainian life against a senseless money-grab war, it was worth the punishment,” he said.
Teixeira further claimed the Department of Justice “was politicized and used as a weapon” against him and President Donald Trump, and he asked the administration to review his convictions.
“I knowingly made choices to inform the American public and open their eyes,” he said. “I did so fully willing to accept the repercussions. I am comfortable with how history will remember me and my actions.”
Teixeira, who was previously sentenced to 15 years in prison on the federal charges, faced potentially another 10 years in custody for the obstruction charge.
He was sentenced Thursday under the terms of the plea agreement, avoiding any further confinement time and getting a dishonorable discharge, according to Lt. Col. Peter Havern, the prosecutor in the military case.
Havern said they are pleased with the sentence.
“The important thing for us was the dishonorable discharge,” he told reporters following the proceedings. “We wanted to reflect to our airmen and guardians, as well as to the public, that when you commit the crimes that he committed, that we need to accurately depict your service as a dishonorable service.”
“I think it’s an accurate, appropriate sentence,” he added, calling a dishonorable discharge “the most serious punitive discharge that the military can command.”
Teixeria currently remains an airman pending the outcome of an automatic appeals process in the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, Havern said.
Under the obstruction charge, the airman was accused of “disposing of an iPad, computer hard drive, and cell phone, with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself” sometime between March 1, 2023, and April 13, 2023, as well as directing another person to delete Discord messages he sent “with intent to obstruct the due administration of justice in the case of himself” on or about April 7, 2023.
Teixeira, who worked as an information technology specialist, was convicted last year on federal charges, pleading guilty to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.
He was sentenced in November 2024 to 15 years in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.
An Air Force evidentiary hearing was held in May 2024 to determine whether his case should move forward to an Air Force court-martial.
Federal prosecutors said Teixeira “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”
According to the signed plea agreement filed with the federal court, Teixeira agreed to plead guilty to all six counts charging him with willful retention and transmission of national defense information. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.
Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and posted images of them on Discord prior to his arrest in April 2023, a prosecutor said during the federal plea hearing last year. He has admitted in court to knowing the documents were marked classified.
Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record. He had top-secret security clearance beginning in 2021 and began posting classified documents online in January 2022, according to the Department of Justice.
