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Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, who is suspected of withholding secret documents from the Pentagon and transmitting them on social networks, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to the six charges against him in federal court.
The 21-year-old pleaded not guilty at a hearing presided over by Judge David Hennessy in a court in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts.
Teixeira was indicted last week by a grand jury in Boston on six counts of willfully withholding and transmitting classified national defense information.
If convicted of all six crimes, he could face up to 60 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.5 million.
In a statement published by the media this Wednesday, his family reiterated their commitment to support Teixeira “unwaveringly” and expressed their desire that the defendant receive “fair treatment.”
The defendant is suspected of having leaked secret Pentagon documents on Discord, a social network used mainly by video game fans, after having obtained this information while serving at a Massachusetts Air National Guard base.
According to prosecutors, the Defense Department discovered classified documents of his circulating online in March. The young man was detained by the FBI in April and has been in custody ever since.
The indictment states that Teixeira allegedly exposed information about the military equipment that the US was going to send to Ukraine and how it was going to be shipped and used.
Also, in one of the documents that he allegedly shared online there was information about a plan by a foreign enemy to attack US forces deployed outside the country.
Keep reading:
– Jack Texeira is charged with 7 counts in connection with the Internet leak of secret US documents.
– Jack Teixeira, the young man who leaked military documents had a private arsenal and was tempted to commit a massacre
– How a 21-year-old military man of low rank was able to gain access to “top secret” Pentagon documents