A Massachusetts Air National Guardsman serving a 15-year sentence for leaking military information on an online chat platform said last week his intent had been to “educate the people’’ and that he would do it all over again if he had the chance.
Jack D. Teixeira, 23, who was sentenced in November after pleading guilty to posting hundreds of classified documents about the war in Ukraine and other sensitive intelligence matters online, said in an interview last week on ABC’s “Good Morning America’’ that his case had been “politicized.’’
His mother, Dawn Dufault, said in the interview her son’s prosecution had been “malicious,’’ and appealed to President Trump to “look at how my son was treated’’ and issue a pardon.
Teixeira, speaking over the phone from federal prison, claimed he had been targeted by the Biden administration, saying that “there are people who have done far worse things’’ with classified information who “didn’t get as bad of a treatment as I did.’’
“I think that I was used as a sacrificial lamb, and I was crucified to be made of as an example,’’ he said in the interview.
Teixeira, of Dighton, claimed the American people were being “lied to’’ about the nature of military aid to Ukraine during its ongoing war with Russia.
“A lot of the things that the administration at the time was saying was wrong, it was misleading, it was outright false, or it was skewed,’’ he said.
“I wanted people to know exactly what was going on so that no one could say, ‘Well, it was like this because the history book or the history textbook said it was,’’’ he said.
Teixeira, an information technology specialist at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, admitted in federal court that he posted highly classified documents on Discord, an online chat platform popular with gamers, between January 2022 and April 2023.
He pleaded guilty in federal court to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act, and was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
He also was convicted of obstructing justice at his military court-martial at Hanscom Air Force Base in March after reaching a plea deal for a dishonorable discharge and no additional jail time.
An attorney for Teixeira filed an application for a pardon last week, according to “Good Morning America.’’
Teixeira’s mother said in the interview that her son was “compelled to tell the truth’’ and that he “didn’t do it to harm the country.’’
Both she and Teixeira said they hoped Trump would approve the pardon. Teixeira added that he had voted for Trump in the 2024 presidential election, saying that “I think they’ll look at someone like me as a supporter.’’
Teixeira joined the Air Force National Guard at 18 and missed his high school graduation to attend basic training. He became isolated during the pandemic and formed friendships online, according to his lawyers.
Prosecutors rejected that notion, saying that Teixeira exhibited “an obsessive need to talk perhaps, not an obsessive need to tell the truth.’’
Material from previous Globe coverage was used.
Camilo Fonseca can be reached at camilo.fonseca@globe.com. Follow him on X @fonseca_esq and on Instagram @camilo_fonseca.reports.