U.S.: Investigation into document leak moves forward

WASHINGTON  – The FBI wants to question a 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member in connection with the leak of secret military documents about the war in Ukraine, two sources familiar with the matter said Thursday.

The FBI had previously narrowed the list of suspects in the leak of documents that revealed details about internal U.S. government assessments of the war and relations with allies. Investigators now believe the person who ran the chat group where the documents were posted is a member of the Air National Guard in Massachusetts who specializes in intelligence, according to the two people, who were not authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing probe and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

The New York Times had earlier reported on the FBI’s interest in the young man, identified by people familiar with the matter as Jack Teixeira.

The Defense Department would not confirm his identity, but indicated in a statement that “we are aware of the investigation into the alleged role a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard may have played in the recent leak of highly classified documents.”

The U.S. government has been assessing the national security and diplomatic implications of the leak since it was first reported last week. A Pentagon spokesman told reporters days ago that the revelations pose “a very serious risk to national security” and the Justice Department launched an investigation to track down those responsible.

“We’re getting closer,” President Joe Biden told reporters in Ireland on Thursday. He said that while he is dismayed that the documents were leaked, “to my knowledge, there is nothing contemporaneous in them that is of great significance.”

The Justice Department declined to comment on the issue Thursday.

It is possible that the leak began on a website called Discord, a social networking platform popular with online video game fans. Discord offers text, voice and video chats and describes itself as a place “where you can belong to a school club, a video game group or a worldwide art community.”

In one such forum, originally set up to discuss a wide range of topics, members started talking about the war in Ukraine. According to one chat member, an unidentified member posted documents there that he said were secret, first transcribing them accompanied with his own thoughts and, a few months ago, uploading images of folded pages.

Discord reported that it is cooperating with law enforcement agencies.

There are only a few ways in which the documents could have been accessed, offering clues as to who was responsible. Usually in secret official filings, information is shared electronically, as was the case with the documents shared on Discord.