US airman behind classified documents leak to appear in court
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old US Air National Guardsman, has been arrested and charged with the unauthorised removal and transmission of classified military documents.
Authorities believe Teixeira is behind the massive US documents leak which has embarrassed Washington and highlighted American spying on allies, information regarding the war in Ukraine and other sensitive secrets.
Teixeira was identified as the leader of an online chat group where the documents first emerged. He had reportedly been leaking sensitive material online for some but it was not until the intelligence material was posted outside the chat room group that Pentagon officials became aware of the leak.
The leaks have raised fresh questions over the security of classified documents.
Teixeira, who worked as an IT specialist in the intelligence wing of the Massachusetts National Guard, was arrested by the FBI at his family home in Dighton, rural Massachusetts.
Friends of Teixeira said he was neither a whistleblower nor a foreign agent and had harboured a scepticism of the US government.
He will appear in court in Boston, Massachusetts later on Friday.