(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)
NARRATOR: It started on the online chat platform Discord,
a post by a person known only as Lucca.
Classified US intelligence documents.
One batch after another.
Documents labelled 'Top Secret' soon spilled onto social media.
Documents labelled 'Top Secret' That's when it made headlines.
REPORTER: Top-secret documents about the war in Ukraine
REPORTER: Top-secret documents have appeared on social media.
Investigations are underway into the leak have appeared on social media.
Investigations are underway into the leak
of classified Pentagon documents.
The Pentagon is dealing with the fallout from the worst leak
of US national security intelligence in many years.
Top-secret documents show Ukraine's air defence vulnerability.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: After this hit the news,
SAMUEL OAKFORD: we're trying to figure out
A, the extent of the leak
and B, obviously who leaked it.
We were looking into Lucca,
trying to find traces of him across the web.
Sam Oakford is on the visual forensics team
at The Washington Post.
I got in touch with someone else in this Discord server
I got in touch with someone else and we had a video call.
He was clear that Lucca was not the originator
of these leaked documents. He was clear that Lucca was not the originator
of these leaked documents.
He showed me what he said were additional documents
that hadn't been in the tranche that Lucca was tied to.
Shane Harris is a national-security reporter at The Post.
SHANE HARRIS: Sam sends me a picture
that this source has taken of a document and shared with Sam.
Oh. Wow.
OK, it's the Chinese spy balloon
that had some months earlier drifted over North America.
And this appears to be a picture taken from above the spy balloon,
which means it could only come from a government surveillance platform.
I thought, "How does a teenager
"have access to highly classified documents?"
A few hours later
the source called back.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: This is a recording the source called back.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: This is a recording from a call I had that night.
That's when this story started.
The reporters arranged to meet the source in person.
We're sitting on this park bench and this kid arrives,
We're sitting on this park bench and before we've even got a chance
to start introducing ourselves and before we've even got a chance
to start introducing ourselves to each other, he says,
"So, I have this information and I want to give it to you."
"So, I have this information He pops open the laptop,
and it's pretty clear within a minute or two
that this kid has an astonishing range of classified documents.
The leak was far bigger than anyone had understood.
The leak was far bigger More than 300 pages
that included some of the most More than 300 pages
that included some of the most highly classified information
that included some of the most in the US government,
from secret Pentagon assessments of the war in Ukraine
to revelations about Iran's nuclear program
to scenarios about a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
And that's when he starts to tell us the story
And that's when he starts of a group of friends
who he made online during the pandemic
in a Discord server
that they called Thug Shaker Central.
that they called And he described one individual
who, over the course of many months,
had shared hundreds and hundreds of classified documents.
As the reporters were returning home with the documents...
..the FBI was closing in on a suspect.
REPORTER: Jack Teixeira... REPORTER: Jack Douglas Teixeira...
REPORTER: Jack Teixeira... REPORTER: Jack Teixeira,
the man suspected of leaking highly REPORTER: Jack Teixeira,
the man suspected of leaking highly classified military documents,
the man suspected of leaking highly has been found.
REPORTER: That's him in the red shorts there.
The 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guard member
was taken into custody earlier today.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: This 21-year-old Air National Guardman
is alleged to have disclosed
hundreds of top-secret government documents online
hundreds of top-secret to his gaming buddies.
Why did he do it?
How did he do it?
What drove him?
Who is he?
Over the next six months
reporters at The Washington Post
would investigate Jack Teixeira's world.
It largely played out online.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: Our whole team was working on this,
creating networks, basically, of people
based on their social-media profiles,
because they interacted in some way with Jack
because they interacted or someone he was connected to.
Chris Dehghanpoor specialises in tracking down sources online.
He worked as an information security engineer at a gaming platform
before becoming an investigative reporter at The Post.
The first thing I tried to do was to find his Steam profile.
Steam is an online gaming network
that is very popular with users on Discord.
And, if we could find his friend list,
we could start to kind of build out a network And, if we could find his friend list,
we could start to kind of build out a network
of other users that he was interacting with.
Here's a list of people that both Jack and Mr Lucca were friends with.
Out of the many friend requests that I sent out,
only a handful actually responded.
One of those happened to be the user that is named Crow.
After about a half hour of going back and forth,
After about a half hour they revealed that they had dated.
For me, they revealed that they had dated.
For me, that definitely set alarm bells off.
What are the odds of, you know, one of the first people
that kind of replies to my random friend request the day of
happens to be someone that dated Jack?
It seemed astronomical that that was actually happening.
But her story checked out.
In a series of contacts with Crow
The Post reporters In a series of contacts with Crow
The Post reporters began to find out more about her
and her relationship with Jack Teixeira.
and her relationship SHANE HARRIS: They met online.
They were very close SHANE HARRIS: They met online.
They were very close during the pandemic.
I get the feeling that, when she's telling this story about Jack,
I get the feeling that, when she's speaking as somebody
who also went down she's speaking as somebody
who also went down some very deep rabbit holes
who also went down and went to some very dark places.
She became a neo-Nazi because of people she met online.
She wants to tell her story
as somebody saying, "Look, I made bad choices in my life."
as somebody saying, "Look, She agreed to go on camera
if we used her online name and her whole face wasn't shown.
She said she no longer has anything to do with the neo-Nazi movement.
No, I don't believe any of that anymore.
No, I don't believe any of that I realised as time went on
that those views I realised as time went on
that those views were just inherently false.
that those views But before then I realised
that it was potentially going to get me killed
that it was potentially to stay in those communities.
Is that fear the reason
that you don't want to be identified in this interview?
that you don't want to be identified Partially, yeah.
I don't think anyone would seek me out to hurt me,
but it's better to be safe than sorry.
Crow says she met Jack Teixeira online.
What were some of his just general political views of the day?
What were some of his just general He was patriotic. He liked America.
Um...
I guess...
..best way I could possibly describe him
..best way would be kind of like a libertarian.
He had strong opinions would be kind of like a libertarian.
He had strong opinions about everything.
He had strong opinions He was not a neo-Nazi,
but definitely conservative.
Really supported, like, gun rights, First Amendment rights.
So, it was definitely a plus to me that he was fine with my beliefs.
He texted me this big, long, emotional thing,
He texted me uh...asking me to date him,
telling me that I was, like,
the last part of this dystopian telling me that I was, like,
the last part of this dystopian world that he liked.
the last part of this dystopian Um...
He knew everything about my life.
Crow says they never met in person,
but they had an online relationship Crow says they never met in person,
but they had an online relationship for about a year.
I think in front of his friends he kind of put on this front of,
I think in front of his friends "Oh, I don't really care."
Way more typically masculine "Oh, I don't really care."
Way more typically masculine and conservative.
I think he wanted them to think of him pretty, like, highly.
But when you're one-on-one with him, he was...
..much more of a genuinely, like, sweet person.
Jack Teixeira's family would not speak on the record,
but The Post reporters were able to piece together
an outline of his childhood.
Teixeira grew up in Dighton, Massachusetts,
Teixeira grew up in Dighton, a tranquil corner of the state.
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
SHANE HARRIS: You see family photos (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
SHANE HARRIS: You see family photos of him when he's little.
He looks just like a typical, ordinary little kid.
Seems to come from a big family.
Here he is playing a game online.
He looks about six years old in this picture.
He was obsessed as a young kid with military weaponry and hardware
He was obsessed as a young kid and World War II aeroplanes.
He was a bright kid, and World War II aeroplanes.
He was a bright kid, by all accounts.
In middle school he made the honour roll.
We understand he's reasonably close to his parents.
He lives at the home of his mother and stepfather,
He lives at the home but he's also close with his dad.
We know that in middle school
he started playing Call Of Duty We know that in middle school
he started playing Call Of Duty and Grand Theft Auto
he started playing Call Of Duty with friends online.
He gets to high school
and it seems like maybe this is a period
where there's significant change in his life
where there's significant change and starts to have problems.
It was a time and starts to have problems.
It was a time he would still talk about
when he began dating Crow after high school.
when he began dating Crow There were many late-night calls
where he would rant to me about school,
how much he hated his teacher,
how much he hated some people and he hated the principal,
and how he wishes he could have shot up the school.
and how he wishes Um... How he should have done it.
Just stuff like that.
His sophomore year, there is an incident at the school
where there are two students who say that Jack tells them
he has a molotov cocktail in his backpack,
and what would they do if he threw one down the hallway?
and what would they do The kids are alarmed.
They go to officials,
and ultimately the Dighton Police They go to officials,
and ultimately the Dighton Police Department investigates this.
Frontline and The Washington Post obtained the report
of the subsequent police investigation.
There are witness statements that a number of the students give
There are witness statements that document all of these things
that they say that they've heard Jack say,
including the threats that he's made about killing Black people.
The police meet with Jack
and he tries to say, "I was just talking about a video game."
Ultimately, Jack is suspended from school for one day
and required to take a psychological risk assessment
and required to take before returning to class.
AD VOICEOVER: We wanted to build a place where you could game, talk
AD VOICEOVER: We wanted to build and ultimately belong,
so, we built Discord,
and you loved it!
By the time Teixeira and you loved it!
By the time Teixeira got into trouble in high school,
the chat platform Discord was surging in popularity with gamers.
the chat platform Discord was surging You made Discord into a home,
a place for you and your friends to hang out in.
Discord was started in 2015
by game developers Jason Citron and Stanislav Vishnevskiy.
It quickly evolved
and became a place for users to It quickly evolved
and became a place for users to create communities known as servers,
with no advertising and little oversight,
relying largely on users to moderate problematic content.
RECORDING: It's going to happen at UVA
in front of the Jefferson statue.
We're going to march to the monument with the torches.
(INDISTINCT YELLING)
As the company grew, it came under fire
when white supremacists
began recruiting and organising on its servers,
most infamously for the Unite the Right rally
most infamously in Charlottesville, Virginia.
John Redgrave is Discord's Head of Trust and Safety.
John Redgrave is Discord's After the Charlottesville riots
and the Unite the Right rally After the Charlottesville riots
and the Unite the Right rally in 2017,
it was found that there were people who were organising on Discord.
it was found that there were people Look, the Unite the Right rally
was a really challenging moment for Discord,
I was not part of the company at that time,
but it was the impetus for Discord to build a trust and safety team.
We have 150 million people using Discord every month, right?
That's billions of interactions, right?
So, the scale of this challenge is immense.
The company has defended itself in the wake of the intelligence leaks
and the ongoing problems with extremism,
saying they represent isolated bad actors
on a platform designed for privacy and community.
We have taken the stance that a lot of these spaces on a platform designed for privacy and community.
We have taken the stance that a lot of these spaces
We have taken the stance are like text messaging
your friends and your loved ones,
and it's inappropriate for us to violate people's privacy,
and we don't have the level of precision to do so
when it comes to detection.
Sam Oakford tracked down one of Jack Teixeira's friends from Discord.
He wanted to be identified by his online name, Pucki.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: Pucki is someone that I heard about very early on.
It took us a long time, many, many months,
to track him down and identify him by name
and then get in touch and then convince him to meet with us.
Pucki is now 19.
This is the first time Pucki is now 19.
This is the first time he's spoken on camera.
This is the first time Alright. And we are rolling.
Do not disturb. There we go.
Let's start when you first encountered Discord as a platform.
I think it was in 7th Grade.
I was still using Skype at that point,
and my really good friend at the time
were like, "We should ditch Skype because everybody's on Discord."
I formed a habit of being there a lot, texting, but also speaking.
And then June 2020, that's when I joined Oxide.
Oxide is a YouTube channel
featuring Russian guns, body armour and military hardware.
featuring Russian guns, body armour (GUNFIRE)
Viewers who like the content (GUNFIRE)
Viewers who like the content can then join a server on Discord -
Viewers who like the content Oxide Hub,
which in 2020 had thousands of members,
which in 2020 including Jack Teixeira.
We were stuck inside that summer,
so, we were just all online playing games,
so, I searched for other places to be
and then that's what brought me to Oxide.
And Jack was there and we hit it off.
And Jack was there Personally, I remember him being...
..he was...he was a cool guy.
It was during the early days of the COVID pandemic
that Jack Teixeira's friend group was coalescing on Discord.
Charles says he was around 13 when he met Teixeira on Oxide Hub.
He and one of his parents agreed he could be interviewed
on the condition his identity be concealed and we use his middle name.
on the condition his identity be CHARLES: I moved to a new school
and they just shut down immediately due to COVID restrictions.
Just hold that that for a second.
Actually, you can put that in your pocket.
I had no friends and was locked at home.
And because I was locked at home, that led me to Discord.
And Discord is where I eventually met Jack Teixeira.
And after some time, you know, you play so many games with someone,
you have so many good moments with those people
that you kind of form a bond with them.
PUCKI: We took joy in being offensive.
PUCKI: It was something that made...
..us tighter as friends,
like us against the world.
We would talk about how much we hated a race,
whether that be Jews or...or Blacks, Hispanics or Canadians.
It could be anything.
You'd be like, "Dude, screw those people,"
You'd be like, and people would be like, "Yeah!"
Whether it was serious or not, we didn't care.
Whether it was serious or not, It was funny.
And that, during such a time where we were so far removed from society,
And that, during such a time where because of COVID
it was so easy to fall into because of COVID
it was so easy to fall into that hole of just hating everything.
CHARLES: A lot of older people don't understand
how gross younger people's humour can be,
and they don't understand just how disturbing
younger people's perceptions of what can be joked and not joked about is.
Like many large public Discord servers,
Oxide Hub had its own moderators responsible for policing content.
PUCKI: At some point
Oxide's moderation team,
they want to crack down on offensive content,
offensive for this being racially motivated images, memes.
Because it was a public server, they didn't want anything too edgy,
so, they started cracking down on this content.
CROW: And then Pucki, he made a smaller server
CROW: And then Pucki, and invited a bunch of people
who used to be active and invited a bunch of people
who used to be active in the voice chats.
who used to be active And then this is where you could say
the core members became solidified with each other.
99% of my time was in there.
What was the role that Jack played 99% of my time was in there.
What was the role that Jack played in the group? I mean...
He was pretty well-liked by everyone.
He was someone that if you saw them, like, join the VC
and they were just sitting in there alone,
it would fill up really quickly with other people
just wanting to talk to him.
CHARLES: He was an awesome guy to hang out around.
Like, anytime he entered the room,
like, the mood changed, like, stuff's going down,
this is going to be fun, we're gonna have a good night.
this is going to be fun, (CROWD CHANTS)
After the George Floyd protests
dominated the news in the summer of 2020...
dominated the news (INDISTINCT YELLING)
..the content on Pucki's server became even more racist and violent.
Like, in the calls, people would be in their military gear
yelling a lot about Black people, about police. Like, in the calls, people would be in their military gear
yelling a lot about Black people, about police.
There was some of, like, "Just keep burning stuff down," you know?
There was one day where people joined the call
There was one day and just started doing push-ups
to prepare for, like... (LAUGHS)
..the end times.
Adjust kippah.
(LAUGHTER)
This is a screen recording of the group gaming together.
Maybe I should go the country club route.
(LAUGHTER)
Jack Teixeira used his online name, The Excalibur Effect.
(GUNSHOT) Unlucky.
(GUNSHOT) (LAUGHTER)
Oh, Mr Zombie's shot!
Gore was posted.
You'd post videos of jihadi...
..you know, beheadings You'd post videos of jihadi...
..you know, beheadings and things like that
..you know, beheadings or cartel killings.
You'd be like, "Dude, look at this guy getting his head chopped off."
You'd be like, "Dude, look at this It was... It was cool.
What do you think about this now?
We're talking about it... I'm definitely not proud of...
We're talking about it... ..of it at all.
It's embarrassing.
And it's...
..quite frankly, humiliating
to speak about it now,
but I'm willing to.
Do you think that the community Jack was in on Discord nudged him closer
to making this bad decision that he ultimately made?
CROW: Yeah, I think so, yeah.
I think it was just the whole, like,
psychology of being in an online community like that.
I mean, there's, like, a term - 'chronically online'...
..where you lose touch
of how interacting with people in real life is.
And, like, real consequences and real issues in the world -
And, like, real consequences those just go away.
In the summer of 2020
Jack graduates high school.
That's, of course, the first year of the pandemic.
He actually skips high-school graduation
because he's off to basic training at Lackland Air Force Base.
He goes on to start taking the coursework that he needs
to become a cyber transport specialist.
It was a low-level IT job,
but it required a security clearance and a background check.
He was a little bit worried they were going to, in their interview,
bring up, "Hey, we found this Discord account,"
or "We found this Discord server."
At that time he did become less active in Discord
and he was very worried about
keeping the things he was doing private and safe.
What was he specifically worried keeping the things he was doing private and safe.
What was he specifically worried
that the background investigation might turn up
that the background investigation with regards to Discord?
Um...
There was a lot of, like, racist talk on that server.
There was a lot of talk of killing ATF agents,
government officials,
killing different government officials,
killing different committing acts of terrorism,
things that are probably not great
for someone in the military to be saying.
So, I think that's probably what he was worried about.
But Teixeira was investigated
and ultimately approved for security clearance
by the Department of Defence.
One big question we have right now
is how did Jack Teixeira get his security clearance?
So, if we're looking at Jack Teixeira
and all the things that he posted online,
the racist, violent comments, the memes, the imagery
and the fact that he ultimately is accused
of leaking hundreds of classified documents,
of leaking hundreds it's like, OK, well, wait a minute,
there should have been red flags along the way.
The Department of Defence declined to give an interview
or answer questions about Jack Teixeira.
or answer questions A Pentagon review
found that there wasn't a single point of failure in the leaks,
but said improvements were needed to the security clearance process
and how classified information is safeguarded.
To receive his security clearance
Teixeira would have had to fill out a detailed questionnaire,
Teixeira would have had to fill out the SF 86.
This is the current SF 86.
136 pages long.
This is literally mine from 2019.
Mark Zaid is a lawyer who has represented hundreds of people
going through the security clearance process.
You know, if that very simple question,
"What social-media sites are you on?"
"What social-media sites had been asked on the form,
and one source from that social had been asked on the form,
and one source from that social media site had been obtained...
He might never have gotten a security clearance.
By October 2021
Jack Teixeira was working as an IT specialist
with the 102nd Intelligence Wing at the Otis Air National Guard Base
in Massachusetts.
To the extent that you understand it, what is Jack Teixeira's job?
For all practical purposes, To the extent that you understand it, what is Jack Teixeira's job?
For all practical purposes,
he's a technician.
He fixes and repairs systems.
Maybe computer systems, hardware, software...
..file servers, data storage,
all of those parts and pieces
that sit behind, in front of or next to
that sit behind, in front of an intelligence analyst
that they use as their tools.
They're in there working on the system.
You can't help but see classified information.
Correct. Absolutely.
And, so, you would think
that a technician doesn't need access to top-secret information,
but they're going to see, touch and feel
top-secret information all the time.
Teixeira was working in a SCIF,
a secure facility where personal electronics are banned.
He would sometimes work unsupervised at night,
maintaining air-conditioning units and answering phones.
I mean, it must have been intoxicating for him
if he's working in this highly sensitive facility,
if he's working safeguarding the nation's secrets.
And then he goes home safeguarding the nation's secrets.
And then he goes home and hops onto Discord,
and it's a racist, paranoid, anti-Semitic free-for-all.
It's like he's living this double life.
(GUNSHOT)
Around this time on Pucki's Discord server...
Around this time (GUNSHOTS)
..Teixeira was posting videos (GUNSHOTS)
..Teixeira was posting videos mimicking first-person shooters.
One video threatened violence against Jews and Black people.
(GUNFIRE)
I was there when it was posted.
I remember it being posted
and I was like, "What are you shooting?"
Was that out of the ordinary or was that something that...
Was that out of the ordinary That sort of rhetoric was common.
Um...
All pretence aside, right? It was... It was... It was racist,
All pretence aside, right? but if you were in the know,
it was funny and you were included.
When you're talking about your politics -
where they sort of conspiratorial?
Yes. You know, "Jews... Jews rule the world."
Vaccines... This was huge in the pandemic.
The vaccines, like, "All these companies,
"they've got Jewish CEOs, we can't trust it," and...
So, Jack is one of the people talking about this?
So, Jack is one of the people Definitely.
Pucki says he now regrets the anti-Semitism, hate speech
Pucki says he now regrets and conspiracy theories.
That was really big...
At the end of 2021, That was really big...
At the end of 2021, with COVID restrictions waning,
he says he began spending less time on Discord.
Control of the server was given over to Teixeira.
The server name eventually changed to Thug Shaker Central,
a racist and homophobic reference to gay pornography.
I would hate to describe the server as, like, a cult of personality,
but it became very centred around Jack's humour
but it became very centred and his point of view.
Jack Teixeira was older and his point of view.
Jack Teixeira was older than most of the group,
Jack Teixeira was older many of whom were young teenagers.
The more extremist he got and the smaller his circle got,
he felt it was his duty to be this, you know, father figure,
to be this man that would tell them what's going on
to be this man and had all this information.
By this time, Crow says they'd broken off their relationship
By this time, Crow says and she had left the server.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: A really key element
was the way that the server became smaller and smaller over time.
And it wasn't only that there were fewer people in it, was the way that the server became smaller and smaller over time.
And it wasn't only that there were fewer people in it,
but there were certain types of people
who made the toxicity levels rise and rise.
who made the toxicity levels It was down to maybe, like, 20 guys.
When you have a group It was down to maybe, like, 20 guys.
When you have a group who share similar views,
it will progressively become edgier, darker, brutal,
and it's easy to become locked in that echo chamber.
Discord says that it shut down one of Jack Teixeira's user accounts
Discord says that it shut down for hateful content,
but that he had two others,
and the reason it took no action against Thug Shaker Central
was because nobody reported it.
SHANE HARRIS: In the case of Thug Shaker Central,
SHANE HARRIS: Jack Teixeira was a moderator.
In the city analogy, it's Jack's Jack Teixeira was a moderator.
In the city analogy, it's Jack's house is essentially that server.
In the city analogy, it's Jack's Yeah, he built his house.
We found Thug Shaker Central violated
We found Thug Shaker Central several other terms of services -
hate speech, images of gore, several other terms of services -
hate speech, images of gore, threats of violence.
These are all things that we've documented in our reporting as well.
These are all things that we've Why were these particular kids
allowed to continue sharing Why were these particular kids
allowed to continue sharing this kind of material
allowed to continue sharing for more than a year?
This comes down to... for more than a year?
This comes down to...
..our ability to identify
what's happening in these spaces.
We rely on user reports.
We rely on third parties to help us with intelligence.
We rely on third parties None of that happened here.
Well, none of it None of that happened here.
Well, none of it was likely to happen
because they were all part of this community.
I mean, if one of them objected because they were all part of this community.
I mean, if one of them objected
to racist and anti-Semitic comments being made routinely,
they might have flagged it,
but they didn't because they were all in on that.
So, what you're saying is that the company has no way of monitoring
for that kind of content on its own?
We require that people are helping to keep Discord safe.
We do scan spaces, in particular for child sex abuse material.
We do scan spaces, in particular Um...
That is unambiguously bad.
But when it comes to other classes of abuse,
we all need to collectively think about,
"Are we just diving in to someone's privacy?"
So, in our city, this is the difference
between someone who has a listening device in your apartment
between someone who has versus not, right?
And it's...it's certainly our choice
to not put that listening device in And it's...it's certainly our choice
to not put that listening device in in those private spaces.
In early 2022...
REPORTER: The crisis between Ukraine In early 2022...
REPORTER: The crisis between Ukraine and Russia is reaching...
..Jack Teixeira started focusing his Discord posts on world events.
I'm not sure how to explain it. It was just, "Hey, guys. New channel."
At first the channel was for the war.
Then Jack was like,
"Hey, I have this...
"I have these numbers," and we're like, "Sure, dude, post it."
So, then he started posting them.
(YELLS INDISTINCTLY)
(BLASTING)
As the war in Ukraine progressed,
Pucki says Teixeira started sharing As the war in Ukraine progressed,
Pucki says Teixeira started sharing classified information
Pucki says Teixeira started sharing on Thug Shaker Central.
It just sort of started with, like, casualty numbers
It just sort of started and equipment losses
from both sides and equipment losses
from both sides in the Ukraine-Russia conflict.
from both sides It was very basic, just text,
like, "These are the real numbers, guys, from," like...wherever.
I can't remember if he said it was from the DOD or anything like that.
I'm pretty sure he did.
I likened it to him wanting us to be prepared
for whatever the world was going to throw at us.
for whatever the world We spoke about the conspiracies
and how we distrusted We spoke about the conspiracies
and how we distrusted the government.
This was just another iteration of that.
We didn't trust the news
and we were getting it from the source.
He was taking notes from the documents at work,
possibly using speech-to-text on his phone to transcribe them.
But he's now leaving work and coming back
with whole swathes of intelligence from reports, much of it verbatim,
and sharing them with friends online.
Discord chat transcripts released by federal investigators
Discord chat transcripts show that Teixeira was, in fact,
already leaking classified information
already leaking before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: Jack gives someone
who lives in an unnamed foreign city in Europe
a heads up that there will be people coming.
He uses very vulgar language.
He says there'll be a wave of N-words from a city in Ukraine soon,
an allusion to, you know, the impending war.
And he says, "I'll elaborate more when I get home."
So, this is significant for multiple reasons.
It's Jack appearing to give a preview of the invasion of Ukraine
It's Jack appearing to give based on classified material.
It's him talking based on classified material.
It's him talking to a foreign national about this.
It's him talking The Post reporters found
that Teixeira's audience on Discord
was wider than just Thug Shaker Central
and he was regularly having exchanges like this
and he was regularly on a much larger public server
called Abinavski's Exclusion Zone.
Sam Oakford spent weeks mapping Teixeira's posts and contacts
on the Abinavski server,
a community of military enthusiasts and gamers
with more than 600 members around the world.
He found one of Abinavski's moderators in Arizona.
JEREMIAH: Jack first really appeared around when the war started.
So, February of 2022.
He had joined the server before then but never really talked.
I found that out when I looked back through his messages.
It is a little odd that he just all of a sudden
started talking right around the start of the war.
Yeah? We're good?
Jeremiah agreed to be interviewed
on the condition we use only his first name.
on the condition Cool.
Yeah, so, Jack started posting more over time?
Yeah, he started making, like, biweekly to weekly updates
Yeah, he started making, like, when the war was more active.
Almost daily in some cases, uh...
..especially early on, like, May and June of 2022.
So, you were getting a real window into what was going on in the world
relating to the war? Oh, absolutely.
relating to the war? It's one of those things where
it's, like, you're getting direct access
to firsthand information,
which is extremely hard to get.
Being able to see it immediately
was just very fascinating and a little bit exhilarating.
Jeremiah says Teixeira had an eager audience at Abinavski
and that he even took requests for classified information.
He had said that, you know,
"Oh, if you live in this country, you can kind of ask.
"If I have anything on it, I'll tell you."
So, you'd have people from all over the place
being like, "Hey, do you know anything that was going on
being like, "Hey, do you know "about this event in my country?"
And if he had anything, he'd kind of tell them.
My thought the whole time was, "Someone else will report him,"
you know, "It'll... It'll happen eventually. There's no way."
you know, "It'll... It'll happen And it just never did.
He just kept...just he kept posting and posting and posting.
Did you consider reporting Jack at any point?
I did.
I had times where I'm like, "I probably should report him."
I had times where I'm like, You know, I was 18, I was stupid,
and I was kind of just wanting You know, I was 18, I was stupid,
and I was kind of just wanting to look at information.
and I was kind of just wanting Yeah.
A lot of people told him, you know,
"Hey, you do realise it's illegal, right?"
He was like, "Yeah, I know, I don't care."
He was like, I thought he was an absolute idiot
and was definitely going to get arrested.
Air Force memos show that on more than one occasion
Air Force memos show he was caught in the act.
SHANE HARRIS: It says that Jack Teixeira
SHANE HARRIS: had been observed taking notes
on classified intelligence information in the SCIF.
He was observed putting a note in his pocket.
He was observed He was told to stop.
Then, a month later, another warning.
But then they go on to offer him essentially a promotion
to become an analyst.
And it says that he declined the training opportunity at this time.
And it says that he declined the And then, three months later,
Teixeira was caught viewing classified content
without authorisation.
The Air Force declined to give an interview
The Air Force but published its own investigation,
which pointed to systemic failures
in the handling of classified information
and strongly criticised the culture of complacency
and strongly criticised at Otis Air National Guard Base.
It found that several individuals
knew about Teixeira's breaches of protocol
but intentionally failed to report the full details,
and that a lack of oversight
made it possible to print classified documents without detection.
The commander of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis
was relieved of his command.
14 others were disciplined for dereliction of duties.
Documents from federal investigators
show that by January 2023
Teixeira was concerned that he may be discovered
transcribing classified information at work.
He decided to switch his approach.
He removes documents from work, takes them home
and takes photographs of them with his phone, and he uploads those
and he uploads more than 300 documents like that.
February 28, 2023.
That evening, a teenager at home in Southern California
logged into Discord and initiated the fall of Jack Teixeira.
He went by the name Lucca.
He was naive, immature...
..kind of the whole nine yards of a kid.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: Lucca was one of the younger members
SAMUEL OAKFORD: of Thug Shaker Central.
He was someone who had a reputation
for (BLEEP!)-posting, what you might say,
and he would post things in a reckless way.
So, it set off everything that would happen over the next month.
Lucca reposted images of dozens of the classified documents
Lucca reposted images originally leaked to Thug Shaker.
They were sourced from nearly every US intelligence agency.
Never-before-seen Ukrainian battlefield assessments.
Locations where the CIA has recruited sources.
The technology the US uses to track Russian forces.
He probably just thought they were, like, a funny meme and posted them.
Within days
another user forwarded the posts to another server.
another user forwarded the posts The leak was becoming a spill.
Jack Teixeira wrote to his friends The leak was becoming a spill.
Jack Teixeira wrote to his friends on Abinavski.
JEREMIAH: He messaged on March 19 about how he's done posting.
And then the thread disappears, so, he must have deleted it.
Then, in early April,
the classified documents were anonymously posted on 4chan,
a site popular with far-right extremists.
Soon afterwards, they appeared on a pro-Russian telegram channel.
SHANE HARRIS: As these documents are now popping up like mushrooms
SHANE HARRIS: As these documents all over the internet,
Jack hears from one of his friends all over the internet,
Jack hears from one of his friends in Abinavski's Exclusion Zone
that he thinks he's seen some of his 'thingies' on the internet,
that he thinks he's seen some meaning classified material.
So, this is when it kind of hits the fan for Jack, right?
On the evening of April 6
the news broke that the Pentagon and the FBI
were trying to identify the source of the leaks.
REPORTER: Top-secret documents about the war in Ukraine have...
REPORTER: The Pentagon is investigating the leak
of classified documents detailing US and NATO military...
REPORTER: Classified Pentagon documents are being discovered
posted on social media.
Teixeira took drastic action.
SAMUEL OAKFORD: Once this story was in the news,
Jack attempted to delete anything that he could control.
Jack attempted to delete Jack controlled Thug Shaker Central.
He nuked it on April 7.
The same day the FBI actually He nuked it on April 7.
The same day the FBI actually contacts Discord for the first time.
JOHN REDGRAVE: I get a phone call,
I immediately stand up a team of people.
We started to take action I immediately stand up a team of people.
We started to take action
while also collaborating with different law-enforcement agencies.
Classified material had been leaking on Discord for more than a year,
but it had gone undetected until now.
No users at all reported anything about this to us.
No users at all How many servers
were found to have classified documents moving through them,
as you described it?
I don't know the answer as you described it?
I don't know the answer off the top of my head.
I don't know the answer Is it possible you all don't know
how many servers these documents popped up in?
We can't say definitively where classified documents go,
and that's true of every single tech company.
and that's true This is not a Discord problem.
This is an internet problem.
We have no capability to identify
when a classified document has potentially been leaked.
So, the moment Teixeira deleted Thug Shaker Central,
it was...could not be recovered, anything in it?
Could not be recovered.
So, that means that it's gone and you can't recover that
under any circumstances?
There is no way for us
to recover information There is no way for us
to recover information that's deleted by a user on Discord.
Teixeira could delete the Thug Shaker Server,
but he didn't have the same power over Abinavski.
He's running through various ways
he can most efficiently clear up what he did on Abinavski.
JEREMIAH: He had asked me to go back
and delete anything he might have posted outside the thread
and delete anything he might in February of 2022.
He'd also said, you know, in February of 2022.
He'd also said, you know, "Don't tell anyone," which I didn't,
but I immediately started taking screenshots of things
and, like, just kind of collecting information
and, like, just kind of in case it was ever needed.
So, he's telling people,
"Delete anything that has anything to do with me.
"If anyone comes talking to you, don't tell them anything."
"If anyone comes talking to you, In the days that followed
investigators say Teixeira In the days that followed
investigators say Teixeira destroyed electronics equipment,
investigators say Teixeira adopted a new email address
and got a new phone number.
You see him in these days
understanding You see him in these days
understanding that the walls are closing in.
understanding He knows people are looking for him,
and he's trying to delete the evidence
and he's trying that might lead to his door.
Federal agents that might lead to his door.
Federal agents were getting closer to Teixeira.
And the word was getting out among people who had known him online.
I knew a few days before it ever hit national news.
Um...
I used to be very good friends with Mr Lucca,
and I was still close friends with people kind of connected to him.
And I heard that they were looking into him for classified information.
And I heard that they were looking Yeah.
Lucca was the first person who got visited by any law enforcement.
Lucca was the first person who OK.
On April 10, 2023,
the FBI interviewed Lucca.
He told them that a clean-cut white male named Jack
who lived in Massachusetts and worked for the US Air National Guard
who lived in Massachusetts and worked was the source of the leaks.
Three days later
federal agents moved in on Jack Teixeira.
He was waiting for them on the back porch of his mother's house,
reading a Bible.
CHARLES: Last thing he ever said to us...
CHARLES: ..he said, "I'm sorry, guys,
"I really wish ..he said, "I'm sorry, guys,
"I really wish this would never have happened.
"I prayed and I prayed and I prayed that this day would never come.
"But now it's just in God's hand. I love you all."
And then that was basically it.
Jack Teixeira was charged with six counts
Jack Teixeira of retaining and transmitting
classified of retaining and transmitting
classified national-defence information.
The indictment said that what he leaked
could be used to the injury of the United States
or to the advantage of a foreign nation.
Nobody else has been charged in relation to the leaks.
Nobody else has been charged Teixeira has pled not guilty
and remains incarcerated, pending his trial.
If convicted, he could face decades in prison.
SHANE HARRIS: If you look at the whole narrative then of Jack,
there were so many points where he could have been flagged
there were so many points or interrogated further
or even stopped,
and they just don't happen.
Once you start tracking back,
you see failure, failure, failure, failure, failure.
There were countless missed opportunities
There were countless literally from the outset.
And, as a result, we have one of the worst leak cases in modern times.
To me, it felt like a mix of his ego and ideology
To me, it felt like a mix and just all of it blended together.
Because when you're on Discord that much
you lose a lot of what normal socialisation is.
I genuinely just think he never thought they'd come for him.
(THEME MUSIC PLAYS)
Captions by Red Bee Media
Copyright Australian Broadcasting Corporation