Man suspected of leaking US secrets to remain in jail after last-minute decision delays hearing
- About 2 hours before Jack Teixeira was due to appear in court, his defence team asked for more time to ‘address the issues presented’
- The 21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard, who was arrested by the FBI last Thursday, is accused of leaking top-secret documents
A 21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard who is facing criminal charges for leaking top-secret military intelligence records online will remain in jail for now, according to court filings.
Jack Douglas Teixeira of North Dighton, Massachusetts, was due to appear in a federal court in Boston on Wednesday for a hearing to determine whether he would remain jailed pending trial after federal prosecutors in the case told US Magistrate Judge David Hennessy they intended to seek detention.
About two hours before the hearing, however, Teixeira’s team of federal public defenders filed a request asking the judge to delay the detention hearing for two weeks because they needed “more time to address the issues presented by the government’s request for detention”.
It remains to be seen whether Teixeira will opt to challenge the government’s detention request or not.
He will still appear before the judge at 11am ET after he asked to waive his right to a preliminary hearing.
Teixeira was arrested last Thursday at his home by heavily armed FBI agents without incident.
The leaked documents at the heart of the case are believed to be the most serious US security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010. The Pentagon has called the leak a “deliberate, criminal act”.
