BOSTON — The former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who shared military secrets with fellow video gamers online is getting closer to sentencing — but attorneys are trying to keep even more details out of public view.

Jack Teixeira faces a maximum of 16 years and eight months for six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act, according to his plea agreement. He pleaded guilty in federal court in March.

He was originally scheduled to be sentenced in September but that was rescheduled in August to Nov. 12. Judge Indira Talwani told attorneys during the change of plea hearing that sentencing memos must be filed two weeks before the sentencing hearing date.

As the date approaches, his defense attorneys are now asking that they be allowed to file their sentencing memo, which asks for a specific sentence and provides the legal rationale for such a sentence, under seal as materials they wish to include are of a “sensitive” nature.

In a Friday motion, defense attorneys write that one included exhibit in their memo is “a neuropsychological assessment containing protected health information about Mr. Teixeira that should not be publicly available” and another is a report from the e Inspector General of the Department of the Air Force which was itself filed under seal. They say the memo itself will quote from these documents.

“Counsel has conferred with the Government who assents to this request. Consistent with the parties’ discussion, Mr. Teixeira will thereafter file a redacted version of his Sentencing Memorandum, which will redact any information subject to the protective order except that which is publicly available from other sources,” the motion filed by attorneys Michael Bachrach and Brendan Kelley states.

In a case that garnered national attention, the feds arrested Teixeira in April 2023 from the North Dighton home of one of his parents and at first charged with unauthorized removal and transmission of national defense information and unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or materials. He was indicted that June on the full six counts he would eventually plead guilty to.

Teixeira, who served as a Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, leaked more than 40 highly classified military documents, including many regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, to a cadre of fellow video game players who participated in discussions on a Discord server he led. A “server” is what the gaming-dominated social media platform Discord calls individual groups or forums.

The leaked documents had at least some geopolitical effect quite early, according to multiple reports. The documents included U.S. intelligence analysis of Taiwan’s air defenses that show it could be vulnerable to an attack by China. Specifically, that only half of Taiwan’s aircraft would be “fully mission capable” in a sudden attack.

It also had an effect on military security both locally and nationally. Fifteen of his fellow airmen at his base were disciplined for allowing the leak to happen and his unit was stripped of its mission.

Due to the nature of the materials Teixeira leaked, the case itself remained highly classified from the beginning, with U.S. District Magistrate Judge David H. Hennessy issuing a protective order on evidence-related filings in the case that October. The Federal Public Defenders appointed to the case added New York City-based attorney Bachrach to the team because he already had the necessary security clearance to work through the materials.

Teixeira will also face a military court martial for his actions, but a date has not yet been set.

_____

©2024 MediaNews Group, Inc. Visit at bostonherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.