Federal authorities arrested a Massachusetts Air National Guard pilot at his mother’s home last April. After a lengthy hearing, Jack Teixeira pleaded not guilty on Monday, pleading guilty and asking for a reduced prison sentence. If he went to trial and lost, he would spend up to 60 years behind bars.

Case details

in federal court in Boston Teixeira pleaded guilty to six counts of “intentionally concealing and transmitting information related to national defence” Under the Espionage Act.

A US Air Force soldier was accused of sharing classified documents on a Minecraft-focused Discord server in late 2022. The files sent included: Huge amount of information about the war in Ukraine (including details about military equipment and the movement of Russian and Ukrainian troops), as well as about Russia’s attempts to collect more weapons from Egypt and Turkey. This content later reached 4chan, Telegram and other Discord servers.

The leaked documents included a report on the hacking of an unnamed US company by a “foreign adversary” and details of a plan to attack US troops serving overseas.

The government said it found no evidence of a deliberate espionage motive and did not charge Teixeira with acting as a whistleblower, following the example of Edward Snowden. Instead, prosecutors concluded: wanted to gain status among his online friends.

Judge Indira Talwani, who is presiding over the case, scheduled a hearing in September to finalize the settlement. According to this agreement, the sentence does not include a prison sentence of more than 16 years. The defendant’s attorney, Michael K. Bachrach, says Teixeira’s immaturity played a role. He will apparently insist on the shortest possible prison sentence, which cannot be less than 11 years. “He’s still quite a kid. We’ll be able to find out why his youth plays such an important role.”says the lawyer.