Late last week, old sleep Joe announced that he has officially ordered that all access to any classified materials be restricted to an even tighter degree in the wake of a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard coming into possession of and allegedly leaking multiple hundred of pictures showing highly classified U.S. military intelligence on an online server.
"I commend the rapid action taken by law enforcement to investigate and respond to the recent dissemination of classified U.S. government documents," exclaimed Biden in his statement. "While we are still determining the validity of those documents, I have directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further secure and limit distribution of sensitive information, and our national security team is closely coordinating with our partners and allies."
The man in question, Jack Teixeira, was officially taken into custody by federal agents out in Massachusetts late last week where they slammed him with charges in federal court on two shocking counts:
- Unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information
- Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material
"Since late last week the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk," the FBI claimed in its own released statement on the issue.
As reported by Axios, Teixeira was in charge of military communications networks as an IT specialist. A role that let him have access to a higher-than-normal level of security clearance.
Teixeira was known to be part of a private Discord server in which the classified documents and materials ended up being posted. The name of the server was "Thug Shaker Central" and was filled with a few dozen like-minded boys and men, as reported by a statement from The New York Times.
One person associated with the group spoke with The Washington Post to state that the alleged leaker, who was known in the server as "OG," vocally expressed extreme anti-government sentiment but they did not think that he was attempting to assist any sort of foreign power, and they believe that he was just attempting to show off to those in the server.
"If you had classified documents, you’d want to flex at least a little bit, like hey, I’m the big guy," another member claimed, going on to add, "I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call OG a whistleblower in the slightest."