Traitor or an American hero: who is Jack Teixeira?

On April 13th, agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a Massachusetts Air National Guard member in connection with hundreds of leaked military documents. 

The suspect was later identified by authorities as 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, an Airman 1st Class stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod according to The Washington Post’s Ben Brasch. 

Photo by Twitter @michaelh992

Brasch also noted that the air base from which Teixeria served was home to the 102nd Intelligence Wing, which is how he was able to access classified military documents. 

Photo by Tech. Sgt. Kerri Cole, Own Work, Wiki Commons

Teixeria served as a cyber transport systems journeyman according to Nomaan Merchant of the Associated Press, a position similar to an IT specialist role that would manage military communication networks. 

“In that role, Teixeira would have had a higher level of security clearance because he would have also been tasked with the responsibility to access and ensure protection for the network,” Merchant wrote, synthesizing information related to him by a defense official. 

In his free time, Teixeira also ran an invitation-only Discord community known as “Thug Shaker Central” where he shared many of the documents he’s now being accused of leaking according to Gizmodo’s Lucas Ropek. 

“The group was reportedly a cesspool for juvenile and offensive rhetoric, as well as a forum for talking about guns,” Ropek wrote. 

“It is in this closed online chat group where Teixeira is said to have shared troves of classified documents with other members of the group—many of whom were teenagers,” Ropek added. 

Little is known about why Teixeria leaked so many classified documents. But it has been assumed that his motivations were not to change the world, but rather impress his friends.

“Everyone respected O.G.,” one member of the Discord group known as Vahki explained in an interview with the New York Times. “He was the man, the myth. And he was the legend. Everyone respected this guy.”

Vahki went on to describe Teixeira as a Christian who was antiwar and “just wanted to inform some of his friends about what’s going on,” adding that there were “some people in our group who are in Ukraine. We like fighting games; we like war games.”

Paradoxically, for being antiwar, Teixeira’s family had a long history of military service with his stepfather having served for 34 years before his retirement and his mother working in a non-profit organization that helped veterans according to BBC News. 

Teixeira enlisted in the National Guard On September 29th, 2019, according to The Washington Post, and was mobilized for active duty in the fall according to a National Guard Bureau representative who spoke with The Post. 

American far-right figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene have turned Teixeira into a national hero, and she is tweeting and misspelling his name in his defense: “Jake Teixeira is white, male, Christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.”

“And he told the truth about troops being on the ground in Ukraine and a lot more. Ask yourself who is the real enemy? A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?” Greene added.

Democrats and many Republicans have disagreed with Greene, with Eric Swalwell saying Greene and her ilk were “...siding with one of the biggest traitors America has seen.” 

“I’m sorry, Marge, being white, male, and Christian is not license to betray your country and put the lives of thousands at risk,” Swalwell continued according to Vice. “But this wouldn’t be the first time she sided with traitors.”