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21-year-old Pentagon documents leaker charged with violating the espionage act
Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was arraigned Friday in Boston and charged with violating the espionage act.
National Review reports that FBI special agent, Patrick Lueckenhoff, told a federal judge there was probable cause to believe Teixeira had violated two parts of Title 18 of the federal code: Section 793, which falls under the Espionage Act, and Section 1924.
“The Espionage Act is a World War I-era law that criminalizes the mishandling of national-defense information that could be used to harm the United States or to aid a foreign adversary. It was enacted before the modern classification system for protecting government secrets, which distinguishes between secret and top secret documents, for example.”
National Review explains that the complaint says Teixeira posted the classified information as paragraphs of text at first. “However, by January 2023, he was posting photographs of the documents which appeared to have the classified markings of official U.S. government documents. The FBI interviewed a member of Teixeira’s online group, who explained one of the documents that was posted was a document which described the status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including troop movements. The user explained Teixeira became concerned he would be caught transcribing the documents at work, so he began to take them home to photograph.”
Under Section 793, Teixeira is accused of illegally retaining and transmitting information — a conviction carrying a prison sentence of up to 10 years per violation.
Teixeira is also accused of violating Section 1924, which criminalizes the unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. It is punished by a fine or a prison sentence of up to five years. This scope of this section does not extend to the act of giving the documents to other people, like under the Espionage Act.
However, Section 1924 does specifically refer to classified information, so prosecutors would have to prove to a jury that a mishandled file was classified.
“This is not just about taking home documents, that is of course itself illegal. This is about the transmission…of the documents,” attorney general Merrick Garland said Friday. “There are very serious penalties associated with that. We intend to send that message, how important it is to our national security.”
CONTINUE READING: National Review
Follow Steve Postal: @HebraicMosaic
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What would a new Trump administration mean for the Middle East? Expect the following:
Increased Pressure on Iran and its Proxies
Brian Hook, Trump’s former special envoy to Iran who is believed to be leading Trump’s transition team for the State Department, stated that the new Trump administration would seek to “…isolate Iran diplomatically and weaken them economically, so that they can’t fund all of the violence…” coming from Iran’s proxies, “…all of whom destabilize Israel and our Gulf partners.” This approach contrasts with the Biden-Harris administration, who engaged the Islamic Republic diplomatically and economically, and even removed the Houthis from the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) entity list from February 2021 through January 2024. That being said, Hook also stated that the new Trump administration would have “no interest in regime change” in Iran, and that decisions about the future of Iran lies with its people.
The Trump administration may green light an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. GOP spokeswoman Elizabeth Pipko refused to say whether President-elect Trump would approve of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear sites, stating that Trump should speak for himself on this issue and will do so when he assumes office. However, Trump had stated in October that Israel should strike Iran’s nuclear sites. In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration vocally opposed Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear sites or oil fields, and Israel’s attack plans were leaked to Iran through someone in the Biden-Harris administration’s Defense department.
Striving to End Wars in Lebanon and Gaza
According to Pipko, President-elect Trump wants Israel to end the wars in Gaza and Lebanon quickly, decisively, and with victory. Pipko contrasted this approach with the Biden-Harris administration’s “back and forth” policy, and that the Biden-Harris administration was pressuring how Israel conducts war based on election considerations. The Biden-Harris administration was guilty of “armchair quarterbacking” Israel’s wars in an unproductive way, including by leaking Israel’s plans to strike Lebanon, opposing the Rafah invasion, and opposing the killing of several arch-terrorists.
Trump will also likely prioritize the release of the hostages; Trump recently threatened Hamas, stating that if they did not free its hostages before inauguration day, it will pay “a very big price.” In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration has been spinning its wheels in endless failed diplomacy with Qatar, having not produced a hostage deal with Hamas since November 2023.
Pursuing a Conditional Peace with Palestinians
President-elect Donald Trump will likely re-visit his 2020 peace plan between Israel and the Palestinians, according to Brian Hook. Regarding the 2020 plan, Hook stated that “much of that work is still relevant today.”
On the issue of a Palestinian state, expect that the Trump administration won’t pursue a Palestinian state unconditionally for its own sake, as the Biden-Harris administration has. Hook conceded that Trump’s 2020 plan, which was endorsed by Israel and U.S.’ allies in the Gulf, “had a path to a two-state solution.” But Hook also recognized that Israelis are not focused on a Palestinian state now, and are instead focused on protecting themselves from terrorism in the wake of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
Additionally, Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas outright rejected the 2020 plan, and the plan also required the PA to provide security guarantees for Israel, recognize Israel, and allow Israeli citizens to remain in Judea and Samaria, all of which the PA did not agree to. If the new Trump administration seeks to revive this plan, it will likely revive these conditions for a Palestinian state as well. The PA will then in turn likely reject it a second time, proving again that the PA is not a partner for peace.
Expanding the Abraham Accords
President-elect Trump is also poised to expand the Abraham Accords. Trump brokered normalization deals between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. Reportedly, the previous Trump administration was on the verge of expanding the Abraham Accords to Indonesia and Mauritania, but were prevented from doing so once the administration’s term expired. During the past Trump administration, Saudi Arabia had been trying to get Pakistan to join the Abraham Accords as well.
In contrast, the Biden-Harris administration failed to add any countries to the Abraham Accords. Most notably is the administration’s failure to clinch an Israel-Saudi Arabia deal after chilling US relations with Saudi Arabiaand insisting on a Palestinian state as an integral part of any deal. The Biden-Harris administration seems content with now pursuing a bilateral US-Saudi deal that ices out Israel, which would completely undermine the spirit of the Abraham Accords.
Jared Kushner has had multiple discussions with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on the issue of US-Israel-Saudi relations since President-elect Trump left office. So given past efforts, the new Trump administration could clinch Abraham Accords deals with Indonesia, Mauritania, Oman, and/or the big prize, Saudi Arabia.
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