A United States Air Force National Guard employee has been arrested for leaking highly classified defense documents via unconventional means—a Minecraft Discord server. The 21-year-old was identified and taken into custody Thursday afternoon following a preliminary investigation into what’s been called one of the most significant leaks in recent US history.
The leak occurred between January and early March in a Discord server maintained by and for a small group of Minecraft fans. A user posted more than 100 images of documents marked with “Top Secret” and other classification labels. Many of the documents—which belong to the military and associated intelligence agencies—revolve around the war in Ukraine, with others containing intercepted communications between US allies and information about Russian military plans. While several images were deleted from the server, investigators at the Pentagon, FBI, and CIA downloaded at least 60 files for review.
The files and other online clues led the FBI to 21-year-old national guardsman Jack Teixeira. Half a dozen FBI agents arrested Teixeria “without incident” at his home in Massachusetts on Thursday, confirming that several major outlets’ own investigations had been on the right track. The New York Times, for example, had managed to find Teixeira’s server—where a group of young people convened to share their “love of guns, racist online memes, and video games”—and even interview a few members of the group leading up to the guardsman’s arrest. The server, called “Thug Shaker Central,” has since been deleted entirely.
Although the Department of Defense has said some documents appear authentic, others seem to have been altered, though it’s unclear how or to what extent. Still, officials said the leak “is likely to have an impact on US national security worldwide,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
Bellingcat, an international investigative research collective, reports that other countries have responded to the leak in dramatically different ways. Ukrainian officials have publicly doubted the documents’ credibility, despite the US DoD’s mention that at least some seem to be real. Meanwhile, a Russian presidential spokesperson has said the documents reliably reveal the extent of US and NATO involvement in Ukraine—but a pro-Russian social channel insists the documents are Western disinformation.
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