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Jack Teixeira, the man found guilty of leaking hundreds of top-secret US military documents on Discord, has given his first interview defending his actions as patriotic and insisting he would do it again to expose what he calls government lies.
Some shit you should know before you read: Back in 2023, Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Airman First Class serving as a cyber transport systems specialist in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, used his top-secret security clearance to access hundreds of classified military documents unrelated to his official duties. Teixeira exploited his position to search sensitive intelligence on US operations, foreign threats, and the Russia-Ukraine war, which he then shared with members of a private chat group on the social platform Discord. The leaked materials included detailed assessments of battlefield strategies in Ukraine, surveillance of foreign allies and adversaries, and even information regarding Chinese spy balloons and potential plots against US forces abroad. After the leaks were discovered and traced back to him, the FBI arrested Teixeira at his Massachusetts home. He ultimately pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information under the Espionage Act and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
What’s going on now: In an interview with ABC News from federal prison, Teixeira firmly defended his decision to leak classified military documents, claiming that his actions were driven by a sense of patriotic duty rather than malice. “My intent was to educate the United States populist people about what was going on,” Teixeira said, claiming he believed the American public was being “lied to” about US involvement in foreign conflicts, particularly the war in Ukraine. He insisted the leak was not meant to harm the country but to provide transparency: “It was by no means meant to harm my country, but I did believe that I needed to educate the people… because I love my nation. I’m a patriot.”
Despite the severe consequences, he told ABC, “I still believe in my actions… I would have done it again.”
Teixeira also used the interview to argue that his prosecution was politically motivated and disproportionately harsh. He alleged that the case was “specifically politicized by the Biden administration,” and described himself as a “sacrificial lamb” used to set an example. “I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didn’t get as bad of a treatment as I did,” he said.
As part of his continued defense, Teixeira revealed that he is seeking a full presidential pardon from President Trump. He said his legal team had filed a formal pardon application and expressed confidence that Trump would grant it. “I think they’ll look at someone like me as a supporter,” he said, referencing his vote for Trump in the 2024 election while in county jail. He pleaded for Trump to “please give me back to my family, to reunite with my family with my rights as an American and with my freedom.”
His mother, Dawn Dufault, echoed that plea in her own interview with ABC, calling the prosecution “malicious” and urging Trump to review how her son was treated.
