The New York Times has been accused of a double standard by its military correspondent, who notes that his colleagues “worked frantically” to uncover who was behind the Pentagon leaks — but would have worked just as intensely to protect his identity if he had leaked the documents to them.
David Phillips, Ms. Gray’s military correspondent, wrote on Twitter: “The New York Times has worked hard to find the identity of the man who leaked TS documents on Discord. Ironically, if the same man had been leaked to the New York Times, we would have worked hard to hide it.
The newspaper reported Thursday that Jacques Teixeira, a 21-year-old National Guard pilot, is behind the leak of classified files, which it has been accused of posting on social media platform Discord.
Ninety minutes after Teixeira was identified by the newspaper, the FBI arrived at Teixeira’s home in North Dayton, Massachusetts and arrested him.
Teixeira appeared in federal court in Boston on Friday and faces 15 years in prison if convicted of taking and leaking classified information and military secrets.
The New York Times named Jacques Teixeira, 21, as the source of the leak of classified Pentagon documents Thursday. He was arrested shortly after naming the newspaper
Teixeira was photographed in custody Thursday at his home in Massachusetts
His arrest was the culmination of a week of scrambling by the US media and security services to find him. Investigative journalism group Bellingcat led the charge, and witnessed the New York Times and Washington Post battle to find more details about the leaks and the person behind them.
In July 2005, Judith Miller, an investigative reporter for The New York Times, was sent to prison after a federal judge declared that she was “defying the law” by refusing to name a confidential source for her story.
She spent 85 days behind bars for refusing to name undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame.
David Phillips accused his employer, The New York Times, of double standards
Teixeira posted a trove of top-secret files under his online username “Jack the Dripper” for several months before the leak was revealed.
He worked as a junior cybersecurity specialist in the Intelligence Unit at Otis Air National Guard Base in western Cape Cod.
It is believed to have started on a site called Discord, which is a social media platform that is popular among people who play games online.
Teixeira is believed to have released information about weapons, toys, and top-secret US government information.
The lawsuit, filed in court in Boston on Friday, said some of his fellow chat room members reported his activities to investigators.
It alleged that the 21-year-old used his computer to search classified intelligence reports for the word “leak” on April 6.
This was the day that the first stories about the massive security breach broke out.
Prosecutors allege he researched the term to see if US intelligence had information on the identity of the person behind the leaks.
Jacques Teixeira faced two criminal charges in John Joseph Mochley United States Court, in Boston, Massachusetts, on April 14, 2023. A 21-year-old member of the US Air Force National Guard has been arrested on suspicion of leaking a trove of sensitive secrets to the US government.
This document appears to show the state of Ukraine’s air defenses in February and May, when they are expected to be severely depleted.
He has been identified as the leader of a chat room, known as Thug Shaker Central, on Discord, an invite-only platform.
The Associated Press reported that he then posted photos of folded papers because he felt his writing was not taken seriously.
And officials at the US Department of Justice opened an investigation into the case of the 21-year-old, whose actions embarrassed US allies around the world.
Washington’s old friends from Britain to South Korea and Israel have criticized much of the information as false.
It also outlined potential arms deliveries to Ukraine, as well as details of Western-led training for Ukraine’s armed forces.
But in an interview with ABC News, one of the country’s top military officials dismissed the leak’s impact on plans for the battlefield in Kiev.
“This will not be able to affect the real results of the offensive operation,” said Kirillo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence.
The country’s top spy is credited with being one of the few Ukrainian officials to correctly predict the timing of Russia’s all-out invasion of its neighbour.
The actions of the 21-year-old were heavily criticized by lawmakers from all political parties.
But he received support from far-right Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, who mistakenly referred to him as “Jake Teixeira” on Twitter.
In another interview on social media, the congresswoman representing Georgia’s 14th district claimed he was being prosecuted because of the color of his skin.
“Jake Teixeira is white, male, Christian, anti-war,” said Green. “That makes him an enemy of the Biden regime.”
The 48-year-old has repeatedly parried the Kremlin’s talking points about Ukraine, including the completely bogus claim that the country is being overrun by Nazism.
