The Massachusetts Air National Guardsman accused of leaking sensitive Pentagon documents must wait a little longer for federal judge to decide on whether to hold him in pretrial detention.
The judge overseeing the case refrained making a decision to hold Jack Teixeira in pretrial detention to allow time to review the materials after arguments were made on both sides of the table Thursday.
Teixeira made an appearance at a federal courthouse in Worcester, Massachusetts, a day after the Justice Department filed a document alleging the 21-year-old told a Discord user to "delete all messages" and may still have access to "classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states."
Teixeira is facing charges of unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information and willful retention of classified documents.
He appeared Thursday in court wearing an orange prison jumpsuit and a black and white rosary necklace with a cross.
As he entered the courtroom, he gazed at his family in attendance, including his father, before being seated with his lawyers and having his handcuffs removed.
"He currently faces 25 years in prison.... and he accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbor and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States," the Justice Department had said in their filing, arguing Teixeira should remain held as he poses a serious flight risk.
AIR FORCE SUSPENDS TWO COMMANDERS FROM ACCUSED CLASSIFIED DOCUMENT LEAKER’S UNIT
"Not only does the Defendant stand charged with having betrayed his oath and his country but – when those actions began to surface – he appears to have taken a series of obstructive steps intended to thwart the government’s ability to ascertain the full scope of what he has obtained and the universe of unauthorized users with whom he shared these materials," the document continued.
"This includes instructions the Defendant gave to other online members of a social media platform (including to ‘delete all messages’ and ‘[i]f anyone comes looking, don’t tell them s---’) as well as the fact that following his arrest, authorities searched a dumpster at his residence and found a tablet, a laptop, and an Xbox gaming console, all of which had been smashed," it added.
Teixeira’s lawyers Thursday morning argued he is not a flight risk and that the Justice Department was making, "hyperbolic judgments and provides little more than speculation that a foreign adversary will seduce Mr. Teixeira and orchestrate his clandestine escape from the United States."
His legal team had called for Teixeira to be released to his father with location monitoring, no access to internet, no contact with witnesses, and a bond of $20,000.
