Prosecutors asked U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani to sentence Teixeira to 16 1/2 years in prison. His defenders requested that he be sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In their motion for leniency, Teixeira’s lawyers argued in court filings that the airman was bullied in high school and in his military unit and that he suffered from isolation.
Meanwhile, prosecutors argued for a longer prison term, saying the pilot “committed one of the most significant and serious violations of the Espionage Act in American history.”
“Teixeira understood the risk to his country and did it anyway,” prosecutors told Judge Talwani on Tuesday.
Sentencing, Judge Talwani told Teixeira: “You are young and you have a future ahead of you but this is such a serious offence.”
Teixeira apologized in court and said he understood that “all the responsibility and consequences rest on my shoulders,” reporters at the Boston courthouse reported.
Teixeira began working with a small group of gun and war enthusiasts on a Discord server, or chat, in late 2022. Although the documents initially remained in this chat, the information was later shared through more public channels.
Later, the documents were picked up by pro-Kremlin Telegram channels and military bloggers.
In 2019, Teixeira joined the Massachusetts Air National Guard, the US Air Force Reserve. In this position, he had a top secret clearance.
To get that clearance, Teixeira signed a “lifetime nondisclosure agreement” in which he acknowledged that “unauthorized disclosure of protected information could result in criminal liability,” according to court documents.
The Teixeira leak forced the Pentagon to examine its systems for handling classified information.
This is a developing story and will be updated
