In an exclusive interview of the Federal Prison, where he currently celebrates a 15 -year sentence, so prosecutors called one of the most significant leaks of the United States National Defense Secrets, Jack Teixeira spoke for the first time since his arrest more than two years ago.
The 23 -year -old said he is also appealing to President Donald Trump for forgiveness in what he called a “politicized” case under the Biden administration.
“My intention was to educate the populist people of the United States about what was happening. It was not to damage the United States or the country because I love my nation. I am a patriot,” Teixeira told ABC News on the phone from a federal correctional institution of medium security in Virginia. “I was not destined to damage my country, but I thought I needed to educate people about what was happening because I think they were lying to them.”
Look “Good Morning America” at 7 am et for more information from the interview with Jack Teixeira and her mother, Dawn Dufault.
He said he believes that the mission was made “in a significant degree.”
“I don’t feel that I betrayed my country at all, quite the opposite,” he said. “I think I educated many of the people who have remained in the dark and who were being lied to this about all the things that had been happening.”
This photographic illustration created on April 13, 2023 shows the suspect, the National Guard Jack Teixeira, reflected in an image of the Pentagon in Washington, DC
Stefani Reynolds/AFP through Getty Images
Prosecutors say that while they perform as a National Guard of Massachusetts Air, Teixeira abused its high secret authorization and accessed and published images of hundreds of classified documents, including those related to the movements of the troops in Ukraine and the details of the Chinese spy balloons, in the discord of the game platform. Another shared document included “discussing a plot of a foreign adversary to attack the forces of the United States abroad,” according to the accusation.
The FBI said that his actions created “exceptionally serious and durable damage to the national security of the United States”, while the then General Atornerio Merrick Garland said that Teixeira “endangered the national security of our country and that of our allies” when he repeatedly shared the national defense information classified online “in an attempt to impress anonymous friends on the Internet.”
Teixeira declared himself guilty last year of six federal positions to retain and transmit information on national defense. In return, prosecutors agreed not to accuse him with additional charges under the espionage law.
He also declared himself guilty of a military charge of obstructing justice during a martial military court this year, avoiding any additional confinement and receiving a dishonorable discharge as part of his guilty agreement.
After the sentence in the federal case, Joshua Levy, who then acted to the prosecutor for the Massachusetts district, said Teixeira “abused his position of trust” and put himself above his country when his higher authorization exploded and “made the deliberate election” for more than a year to access hundreds of classified documents and share them in discord. This “significant prayer sends a powerful message to each individual who has a high secret authorization,” Levy said.
The then director of FBI, Christopher Wray, said in a statement that prayer is a “warning marked for all those confident in protecting national defense information: betray that trust, and you will be responsible.”
‘I still believe in my actions’
While fulfilling his federal sentence, Teixeira argues that no one was harmed by his actions. He said that his apology in a statement during his sentence in a federal court was destined for his family and friends and how this has impacted them.
“I still believe in my actions,” he said.
Teixeira said that he believes that his case was politicized and that he does not deserve 15 years after bars.
“I feel that there are people who have done very worse things about what they did with similar information, and they did not receive such bad treatment as me,” he said. “But my case was specifically politicized by the Biden administration.”
“I think I was used as a sacrifice lamb, and they crucified me to make me as an example,” he continued.
The suspicious filter of classified documents and the national man of the United States, Jack Teixeira, is arrested by FBI agents in North Dighton, Massachusetts, on April 13, 2023.
WCVB
While working as a specialist in information technology, Teixeira used a safe work station at its Massachusetts base to perform hundreds of searches for classified documents related to national defense information that were not related to their functions, prosecutors said.
When asked why he ignored his training and leaked classified information, Teixeira said: “I think many different people would determine which secrets should be maintained, and I am not completely sure how fair it was.”
Despite the warnings of their superiors to stop carrying out “deep dives” in classified intelligence information, “the classified information and documents containing NDIs without authorization,” said prosecutors.
He pressed why he continued to access the information out of reach of his duties even though he told him to stop, Teixeira said he was encouraged to make “exact opposite to those directives” and “make our due diligence and look at what we are supporting and why we support it and what is happening.”
“I felt that at the time they admonished me to follow a directive that gave me a superior, so it was just a clash of things that I thought it was contradictory,” he said.
Teixeira did not come into details, but said he believed that there were “lies” propagated about what was happening with respect to the “tactical and strategic aspect” of the Russian-Ukraine War and the United States assistance to Ukraine.
“Many of the things that the administration at that time said it was wrong, was misleading, was absolutely false, or was biased, and essentially, I wanted people to know exactly what was happening so that no one could say:” Well, it was so because the textbook of the story or the textbook of the story said it was, “he said.” “I just wanted to show a novified version of this that happened that happened.” “” “”
Despite the 15 -year sentence, he said he would not change what he did.
“I tortured myself again and again about what would happen if I did not do this, or what would happen if this and that. And in reality, it really doesn’t matter,” he said. “I still think so, I would have done it again.”
Teixeira said his lawyers are working to try to obtain a request for forgiveness to Trump, and that he believes he will be forgiven.
“I think they will look at someone like me as a supporter and someone who really used what I thought was going to be my last vote in the Trump county jail for 2024. And I only think he will do it in fact,” he said.
A Teixeira lawyer filed a request for forgiveness on Wednesday. Such request is generally submitted after a federal sentence has been completed, although your request indicates that you are looking for a complete forgiveness instead of only a switching of your sentence. Ultimately, it will depend on the Trump administration approve or deny your request.
Teixeira called to Trump that “please return me to my family, to gather my family with my rights as an American and with my freedom.”
Teixeira’s mother also speaks for the first time
Teixeira’s mother, Dawn Dufault, also appealed to Trump in her first interview since her son’s arrest in April 2023, saying that she thought her prosecution was “malicious” and the “sensation” case.
“He didn’t do it to damage the country,” Dufault told ABC News in an exclusive interview in Boston. “They told the public that they were going to make an example of Jack.”
She said she wants Trump to investigate the case and “see how he was treated to my son.”
“If he agrees that it was an unfair treatment, give him a forgiveness,” he said.
Dufault reflected on his son’s arrest, saying: “It was a complete surprise for me.”
“That morning, the New York Times reporters came to my entrance path asking to see him. That was the first indication that I had that anything was wrong,” he said. “We had been seeing in the news, the stories were trying to find this person who leaked documents. Without idea. And that was April 13, that all this began. At that time, they had asked, they said they were going to execute an article that appointed him as the filtration. He still did not believe it. It was incredible to me.”
Dawn Dufault, on the right, mother of the National Guard of Massachusetts Air Jack Teixeira, stops leaving the Federal Court, March 4, 2024, in Boston.
Steven Senne/AP
Dufault said he still has questions about why his son did what he did, but does not believe it is a threat.
She said she believed that her son was “forced to tell the truth” and made the decision to share the documents classified with friends in Discord. He added that Teixeira was also recently diagnosed as in the autistic spectrum, and has an obsessive compulsive disorder, which she believes can also have been a factor in her actions.
“I think that also played with his compulsion to go against his oath he made to the government,” he said. “I feel that part of him was possibly uncontrollable due to what we now know is autism.”
Dufault said that Teixeira comes from a military family, and are concerned about national security following the filtration.
“How has it improved?” We love this country. We love the government. We are not theorists of conspiracy. But I feel that you have to do more to analyze what happened. “
An Inspector General of the Air Force investigation They discovered that people in the Teixeira unit “could not take the appropriate measures after realizing their intelligence search activities”, but that there was no evidence that the members of their supervision chain were aware of the unauthorized revelations. Fifteen individuals received disciplinary actions and other administrative actions for “abandonment in the performance of duties”, and the Air Force Department said it implemented several reforms to improve the protection of classified and confidential information.
Dufault described his son as a “good child” who has changed since his arrest, increasingly aware of himself and appreciating his family.
“I think he needs a second chance,” he said. “I think it’s still destined for something great. I’ve always done it, and I still feel that way.”
