Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira faces US military justice hearing

Air Force prosecutors on Tuesday called no witnesses to support their case against Teixeira and instead relied only on documents to support charges filed against him in April that he obstructed justice and failed to obey a lawful order. Defense lawyers had urged Lieutenant Colonel Michael Raming, an officer tasked with reviewing that evidence, to delay the hearing, citing a lack of immediate access to certain classified material related to the charges.

(Adds details on hearing in paragraphs 1-9, 13) By Nate Raymond

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Massachusetts, May 14 (Reuters) - U .S. Air Force prosecutors on Tuesday began presenting evidence to a military hearing officer who will decide whether to recommend a trial by court-martial for Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard accused of leaking a massive trove of classified military documents. Teixeira, 22, appeared in uniform at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts for the first hearing to address the military charges, which were filed after he pleaded guilty in March to separate charges by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Teixeira, who was arrested in April 2023, has been accused of carrying out one of the most serious U.S. national security breaches in years. The leaked documents held highly classified information on allies and adversaries, with details ranging from troop movements in Ukraine to Israel's Mossad spy agency. Air Force prosecutors on Tuesday called no witnesses to support their case against Teixeira and instead relied only on documents to support charges filed against him in April that he obstructed justice and failed to obey a lawful order.

Defense lawyers had urged Lieutenant Colonel Michael Raming, an officer tasked with reviewing that evidence, to delay the hearing, citing a lack of immediate access to certain classified material related to the charges. They also asked that he not consider as evidence Teixeira's own guilty plea in March. Lieutenant Colonel Bradley Pronsky, part of Teixeira's defense team, called it "inappropriate" for Raming to consider self-incriminating statements from a different case when deciding whether to recommend Teixeira face trial by court-martial.

Raming rejected those arguments and excluded only one exhibit. He said he could find no precedent barring Teixeia's admissions in his prior guilty plea from being used as evidence in the new case. "It may be a bit distasteful, but it's not barred," he said.

It will be up to Raming to recommend to a major general serving as the special court-martial convening authority how to dispose of the case and whether it should proceed to trial. Raming said he planned to issue a written decision. Before his arrest at his mother's house in North Dighton, Massachusetts, Teixeira had been an airman 1st class at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, where he worked as a cyber defense operations journeyman, or information technology support specialist.

Despite being a low-level airman, Teixeira held a top-secret security clearance, and starting in January 2022 began accessing hundreds of classified documents related to topics including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to federal prosecutors. Under the username "TheExcaliburEffect," Teixeira shared classified information on the messaging app Discord in private servers - a kind of chat room - while bragging he had access to "stuff for Israel, Palestine, Syria, Iran and China."

Under his plea agreement, Teixeira faces at least 11 years in prison when he is sentenced on Sept. 27. The Air Force's separate charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 10-1/2 years in prison.

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