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Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira to 15 years in prison for stealing classified information and sharing it online. Teixeira, 22, was an airman 1st class and in March pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention of defense records in violation of the Espionage Act after he shared hundreds of classified documents with others on the Discord social media site.
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U.S. District Court of Massachusetts Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Teixeira in part based on a sentencing memo submitted by Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy.
Levy said the "scope of his betrayal is breathtaking" and the "amount of damage he caused is immeasurable."
While trying to "feed his own ego," Teixeira caused "exceptionally grave damage" to the nation's security by disclosing national defense information on the Discord site, Levy added.
Teixeria's defense attorneys argued he is autistic and felt isolated, which they said caused him to disclose information online to make new friends.
"His intent was to educate his friends about world events to make certain they were not misled by misinformation," defense attorneys Brendan Kelley and Michael Bachrach told Judge Talwani.
They said Teixeira never intended to harm the United States.
Starting in or near 2022, Teixeira transcribed classified documents and started sharing them on Discord, which is a social media site that is popular among online gamers, in January 2023, federal prosecutors said.
The leak was discovered about three months later in March 2023.
The classified information included military equipment provided by the United States to Ukraine and discussions regarding a foreign entity's plan to target U.S. military forces overseas.
Teixeira in 2021 obtained top-secret security clearance and was trained regarding what constituted classified information, levels of classification and how to handle such information, according to the indictment against him
