Prosecutors say
the 21 year old Air National Guardsman
accused of leaking
highly sensitive military documents
on social media
was actually warned
repeatedly not to do that,
warn that he was
mishandling classified intelligence.
Air Force memoranda detail three
separate instances
since September of Jack
to share his alleged misconduct.
These new revelations come days
before a judge will determine
whether he stays behind bars
ahead of his trial or Natasha
Bertrand is following all of this
in the Pentagon.
I could not believe I couldn't believe
this headline
when I read it
that there were multiple warnings.
And so he had access to all of this.
That's right, Poppy.
So the first warning
apparently came in September of 20, 22
when his superiors actually saw him
taking notes on classified intelligence
and told him to stop.
Now, the next warning
came in October
of 2022
where he was in a briefing, essentially,
and he was asking very deep questions,
deep dove questions into intelligence,
really,
that had nothing to do with his job.
And the superiors there told him
that he needs
to really focus
on his actual duties,
which of course, were related to it.
He was essentially
an IT
person for the Air
National Guard there in Massachusetts.
And so there was essentially
a cease and desist order for him
to stop doing these deep dives
into this kind of intelligence.
Then in January of 20, 23 of this year,
he was again
observed doing
these kind of deep dives
into intelligence.
And he was warned again
by his superiors not to do it.
It does not seem
like he was actually reprimanded
at that point by his commanders.
But it was noted in these Air
National Guard memos
that he was looking at things
and looking at intelligence
that he was not supposed to be doing.
And we should note that
the commanders
there actually offered him
a new position.
If you wanted to
look into this intelligence more
if he wanted more kind of exposure to it
in a way
that actually comported with his duties.
They offered to move him into a new job
that would allow him to do it.
So instead of
really taking away his access
to this classified information
after three strikes
against him, essentially,
they offered to simply
move him into a new job.
Now, we did reach out to the Air
National Guard for comment.
They said they cannot comment right now
because it is an ongoing investigation.
But they did suspend
two commanders in his unit
pending the outcome of this investigation
and the entire intelligence mission
was actually taken away
from this unit
pending the completion
of the investigation.
So we'll see how this shakes out
on Friday when he has his hearing
where a judge is going to determine
whether or not he's
going to stay behind bars.
But prosecutors are arguing, look,
he needs to stay there
because clearly
he has a disregard here
for this kind of classified
and national security information. Poppy.
It's interesting how that would play
into the judge's decision.
Clearly, Natasha,
thanks to the reporting.
Here with more is CNN's
chief law enforcement and intelligence
analyst John Miller.
John,
learning this from federal prosecutors
as they're saying,
there are these three incidences
where incidents where he was
writing notes on classified intelligence,
which is, you know,
you're not supposed to
do putting in his pocket
then he was looking
at a trove of information, deep diving,
they said,
and then he was looking at intelligence
that was not related to his primary duty
Why were those incidents not enough
to remove him from his role?
They were enough.
What didn't happen?
So what we're seeing now is that base
this is extraordinarily unusual.
That base has been suspended
from its intelligence mission totally.
The commanding officer has been suspended
from command of it,
as well as the executive officer.
So in the Pentagon's review, clearly
they have recognized problems there
and basically shut that operation down
in terms
of the classified intelligence side.
But the question is, he's making notes
of classified documents.
We know from earlier
court filings that he
he was nervous about this
because he had been caught.
So he just started
taking the documents wholesale.
The real answer is
have these three things
been treated seriously at the time?
This would have been a referral
to the base's
security officer
who was supposed to ensure
the security of those documents.
And then logically,
it should have gone to an organization
like OCI,
the Office of Special Investigations,
which is the Air Force's
Criminal Investigation Bureau, to see
you know, one thing is one thing.
Two things, three things.
He went to a classified briefing
and sat in the audience and asked
extraordinarily detailed questions
about things that nothing had
that had to do with his realm
and remember what his realm was.
He was the IT guy.
His job was to
make sure the systems were working.
He wasn't an analyst.
He wasn't a target or he wasn't a drone.
Pilot.
So all of this
should have been setting off
alarm bells sooner.
But should it also change writ large?
How how the Pentagon allows
people in what positions
just to have access
to classified documents.
So that's something
the Pentagon is looking at now, which is
the person
in that job,
who is basically the person
that makes the systems run,
actually needs to have
that needs to have that clearance
because you can't access them.
You can't access the mechanics
of the system.
Well, that information is contained
and not have been through
that background investigation.
That also doesn't
mean, as you point out,
that you need to be looking at it
and reading it
because it has nothing
to do with your job
to make sure the system functions.
So this is a holistic review about
where do you put up these fences.
But to get back to Caitlin's question,
the real
the real thing is
we don't need to change all the rules.
We we need to go by the rules
that were already in place
when alarm bells go off.
That has to go up the chain further.
And it did.
And yet he stayed in his job.
John Miller,
as you learn more, keep us updated.
Just remarkable developments, though.