Jack Teixeira: New charges for airman over leaked documents

Airman Jack Teixeira has been in custody since the FBI arrested him on 13 April

A US airman accused of leaking classified defence documents online has been indicted by a federal grand jury in the state of Massachusetts.

Jack Teixeira, 21, faces six counts of retaining and transmitting classified information on a gaming website.

He initially faced only two charges when he was arrested at his Massachusetts home in April.

The young Air National Guardsman faces decades in prison if convicted.

Mr Teixeira stands accused of leaking dozens of files online, including sensitive documents about US allies and military operations abroad.

He pleaded not guilty to the initial charges after being arrested at his home in Massachusetts in April.

It is unclear when Mr Teixeira will enter a plea to the new counts of wilful retention and transmission of classified information related to national defence information. He remains in custody.

The documents include US assessments of the war in Ukraine as well as sensitive secrets about American allies including Egypt, South Korea and the UAE.

The leaks embarrassed Washington and raised fresh questions over the security of classified information.

The documents were shared on an invite-only Discord social media server where users discussed video games.

His posts included violent threats, prosecutors say, including one from February in which he described outfitting a minivan into an "assassination van".

Sharing the documents online "endangered our national security", said Attorney General Merrick Garland in a statement on Thursday.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said that US workers who are given security clearances to view sensitive information are "entrusted to protect classified information and safeguard our nation's secrets".

"The allegations in today's indictment reveal a serious violation of that trust," Mr Wray said. "The FBI and our partners remain firm in our commitment to hold accountable those who endanger our national security and the security of our allies around the world."

Mr Teixeira's lawyers have called the government's claims "hyperbolic" and blamed other Discord users for spreading the documents he is alleged to have shared.

Allegations put forth by the government at the time of his arrest "offer no support that Mr Teixeira currently, or ever, intended any information purportedly to the private social media server to be widely disseminated," one of his lawyers argued in a court filing.

At a hearing last month, prosecutors argued against granting bail to Mr Teixeira. They said he could be a flight risk, posed a threat to US national security and demonstrated a "wilful disregard" for classified information.

"He accessed and may still have access to a trove of classified information that would be of tremendous value to hostile nation states that could offer him safe harbour and attempt to facilitate his escape from the United States," a memo filed to the court said.

His defence team had argued that he should be released to stay in his home alongside relatives, Air Force personnel, or lawyers. His lawyers characterised the government's assertion he may flee as "speculation".

• The biggest intelligence leaks in US history

• Why Teixeira threats didn't stop security clearance

In court papers filed after his arrest, prosecutors revealed that Mr Teixeira had on several occasions previously been caught and reprimanded for viewing information "that was not related to his primary duty and was related to the intelligence field".

In one of the "concerning actions" highlighted by prosecutors, Mr Teixeira was suspected of "potentially ignoring a cease-and-desist order on deep diving into intelligence" after posing "very specific questions" during a classified briefing.