Less than a week after the Pentagon went into full-speed damage control after highly classified military documents surfaced, The Associated Press is reporting that the FBI wants to question a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard.
Guardsman Jack Teixeira, 21, reportedly specializes in intelligence and led the group chat where the documents were initially posted, sources told The Associated Press.
The Washington Post conducted an interview with a young man who told reporters that the person who leaked planning documents detailing U.S. and NATO military support inUkrainewas the leader of a group of about two dozen men and boys who bonded online over their love of guns and God, and went by the moniker "OG."
The leak happened on the gaming platform Discord. The Post spoke to a Discord group member on the condition of anonymity who said OG began posting messages to the group's chatroom last year that referenced military jargon and "strange acronyms."
"He is not a Russian operative. He is not a Ukrainian operative. I’ll go as far to say he is not even on the east side of the world. Any claims that he is a Russian operative or pro-Russia is categorically false," said the voice in the video.
The young member told the Post that he’s a minor, under the age of 18, and was a younger teenager when he joined the Discord group and met OG.
“He’s a smart person. He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren’t accidental leaks of any kind,” the member told the Post.
Allegedly, the young member says that OG shared the documents after he had brought them home from his job on a "military base," but the name of the base was not shared at the time the Post released its report.
As to why OG leaked the documents, the member tells the Post that it may have just been out of frustration.
“It would appear as if he sort of grew angry with the fact that only one or two people were paying attention to these documents that he was pouring his heart out into. And as a sign of just anger, he just decided to post the full documents,” the young member said.
Additionally, the member says he knows OG's real name and the state where he resides but declined to share that information with the Post.
The revelations in the Post will no doubt be of interest to the FBI as they continue to investigate the leak.
Discord said on Wednesday that it was cooperating with the bureau but declined to define the extent of its cooperation.
Although the documents came to light in the past week, the Netherlands-based investigative journalism group Bellingcat, a Scripps News partner, has reported that it has found evidence that some of the files had been posted on Discord as far back as January.
One of the countries that was heavily featured in the leaks was Ukraine. Part of the Washington Post's reporting shared a declaration by U.S. Intelligence that said, "Negotiations to end the conflict are unlikely during 2023 in all considered scenarios." That is the first time that document and its contents have been disclosed.
Scripps News has not independently confirmed this information but will continue to closely monitor the FBI's investigation and will report on further findings.
Pentagon warns leaked Ukraine war documents 'very serious'
In the days since a leak of highly classified documents on the Ukraine war, the Pentagon became aware of the matter and is talking with key allies.
