The man accused
of leaking classified U.S.
intelligence on the Internet
appeared in court
where a judge decided that the suspect
will stay behind bars, at least for now.
Prosecutor has argued
the 21 year
old Jack Teixeira still poses
a threat to the community,
not only because of how many documents
he allegedly accessed,
but because of a trove of weapons
they found in his room
during a search and his alleged
history of violent threats.
Prosecutors also raised concerns
that to share
a might try to exchange
some of the information
he access while serving in the Air
National Guard with a foreign country
in exchange for helping escape the US.
CNN's Jason Carroll starts us off
from Worcester, Massachusetts,
to where to share.
His lawyers argued
prosecutors are exaggerating the risk
their client poses to the U.S.
The detention hearing
got underway with Jack
to share his father first
taking the stand.
He told the court
he would not hesitate to report his son
if he was released.
On bail in his custody
and broke any rules the court impose.
The defense argued the 21 year
old Air
National Guardsman is not a flight risk
nor a security risk.
And that Teixeira did not intend
for the classified information
to go beyond the chat room
where he had shared it.
Judge Hennessy challenged that notion.
Someone under the age of 30
has no idea
they put something on the Internet
that could end up anywhere in the world.
Seriously,
he had no idea that would go beyond
the little people on the server.
That is like someone arguing.
I pull the trigger,
but I had no intent to kill him.
Prosecutors argued to share
who could still have access
to hundreds of documents.
The defense filing asserts Tachira
no longer has access
to those documents,
saying prosecutors are exaggerating
their client's threat.
Court documents filed by the U.S.
attorneys office Wednesday
argue Tachira
should not be released on bail.
Prosecutors claim the information Tachira
allegedly access
far exceeds
what has been disclosed on the Internet.
The filing also includes pictures
from the search warrant
executed onto Sherry's bedroom.
The photos
show a gun locker next to his bed
containing multiple weapons,
including an AK style
High-Capacity weapon, handguns,
shotgun rifles and a gas mask.
Prosecutors say
law enforcement
also found a smashed tablet
laptop and a gaming console in a dumpster
at the home.
Prosecutors say Teixeira
also obstructed justice
by telling those
he was communicating with online
to delete all messages.
And if anyone comes looking,
don't tell them expletive.
Also alleging he, quote,
deleted the social media server
where he posted government information
and procured a new phone number
and email address.
Prosecutors also questioned
why Teixeira was a candidate
for the Air National Guard.
Given his history surrounding guns.
The court document states in 2018.
He was suspended while in high school
after a classmate
allegedly overheard him making remarks
about guns and racial threats.
That same year, prosecutors say
he applied for a firearms I.D.
card but was denied
due to the concerns
of the local police department
over the defendant's
remarks at his high school.
The prosecution adding he is no longer
the small child sitting at a big desk
with big computers.
He is also not the person
he described himself to be.
In a letter to the police officer
when seeking a firearms permit,
so at the end of the
hearing, Judge Magistrate
David Hennessy did not issue a ruling.
He took all the arguments
under advisement.
He is likely to issue
some sort of a written
ruling at
one certain point,
uncertain when that will be
in the meantime
to sheriff remains behind bars Brianna.
All right.
Jason Carroll in Massachusetts for us.
Thank you so much.
I want to bring in
CNN chief law enforcement
and intelligence
analyst John Miller for more on this.
So, John,
the first question I have to ask
is how does someone with this
troubling of a background
who couldn't even get a weapons license
because of the threats that he had made
end up being accepted
into the Air National Guard?
Well, he couldn't get a license
because of the threatening statements
that Jason told us about.
But there
their National Guard needs people.
He went through the clearance process.
They did a background investigation.
And one of the great difficulties
when you have somebody who's
18 years old is,
you know, when they did
my background investigation,
they had to go back 40 years,
foreign travel associates,
anybody I ever lived with.
When you have an 18 year
old kid it's like,
what are your parents say about you?
They say you're great.
You know, they interview two friends
and they usually get their names from you
and maybe a teacher.
And he didn't have much history So
that actually turned around to help him
get the weapon.
Clearly, now
we know how troubled he really was.
Also troubling is the fact
that this information was posted
online much earlier
than we had originally thought.
We thought that it was back in December
that was initially reported.
Now, this week,
we're hearing
it's back in February,
basically, at the time the war began
Is that an alarm for the U.S.
government in general?
That's a double edged sword.
The U.S.
intelligence services
that monitor
any leaks of classified documents
are actually legally barred
from going on the Internet
and spying on Americans
and their communications
unless they have, you know, a case
in this case.
There's also all kinds
of classified documents
floating around on the Internet,
usually stuff that was classified
and is now declassified.
Freedom of Information Act, stuff
from the Nine 11 Commission.
So it's
sometimes hard to recognize
what's still classified that's out there.
That said,
the level
of sensitivity of these documents
and the period of time
they were out there,
the fact that somebody, a reporter,
another member of the military,
somebody just browsing around,
didn't run into it
and recognize it
as extraordinarily sensitive
is kind of amazing.
What do you make of the
prosecution's argument
that they believe
he is a flight risk
and in fact,
they think that another foreign adversary
perhaps wanting access
to some more information
he may still have
will go out of their way
to try to bring him out
of the United States.
And thus, they argue
he should remain behind bars.
Is that farfetched
or do you think that could be a reality?
You know, you could say it's farfetched.
He's a kid.
You know, what access does
he have to
the world of international spies.
But there's a lot we still don't know.
And I refer you to Edward Snowden
living happily
ever after
in Russia as a guest of the government
after leaking
some of the most sensitive programs
in the U.S. government.
It is
the the possibility of it
happening is not zero
Snowden was just awarded a
Russian citizenship last year as well.
John Miller, thank you so much.