A member of the Massachusetts National Guard suspected of leaking military intelligence was pictured on aerial footage quietly reading a book on his front porch as an armored vehicle crept discreetly into his driveway.
Video captured by Boston-based news channel WCBV captured the moment 21-year-old Jack Teixeira was taken into custody, moments after New York Times reporters attempted to knock on his front door.
Although FBI agents had refrained from moving in with him, they had been watching Teixeira for at least a few days before his arrest, but feared an armed confrontation with the gun aficionado, government sources have revealed.
They were therefore forced into a premature action against the alleged leaker, as journalists also surrounded his house – on foot, with drones and with helicopters.
Jack Teixeira, 21, was pictured in aerial footage quietly reading a book on his front porch as an armored vehicle discreetly crept into his driveway
FBI agents had been watching Teixeira for at least a few days before his arrest, but refrained from action for fear of a shootout, as he was rumored to have guns.
When news broke that top-secret materials about US military strategy in Ukraine were circulating in Internet meme groups, a race ensued between federal agencies and reporters to identify the source.
Some have criticized the FBI because journalists scouring the Internet seemed to crack the case faster than the agency, but officials now suggest they were simply waiting for the right time to go down.
“The FBI definitely didn’t like getting too involved in a race with reporters,” said John Miller, CNN’s Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst.
For the past week, reporters from the New York Times and Washington Post in particular have been infiltrating niche Internet groups and interviewing members in hopes of identifying the culprit behind the leaks.
Just an hour and a half before his arrest, the Times published Teixeira’s name.
CNN aired aerial footage of Teixeira’s arrest after he was mentioned by the New York Times earlier on Thursday
Miller says the FBI had been watching Teixeira for some time.
“They’ve been closing in on Teixeira for a few days now. The research is only five days old. His father’s house and his mother’s house were under surveillance,” he said.
“What they wanted to do was arrest him when he started working at the military base where he was assigned. That would have been a controlled environment. But he didn’t go to work today.
“Not knowing his mental state, it wasn’t an ideal scenario to face a trained soldier in a house with guns.”
Some of Teixeira’s colleagues and colleagues revealed that CNN that Teixeira had long been fascinated with the military, long before he had become a Guardsman.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the National Guard, was arrested Thursday by FBI officials for leaking classified US intelligence documents related to the war in Ukraine
“His social media posts showed that he owned a significant number of guns, including military-style assault weapons, and of course he received military training in those weapons,” Miller said.
As such, officials were concerned that if he felt cornered, a shootout could ensue.
But when New York Times reporters brazenly approached his front door, the FBI made the decision to make the move.
“The surveillance teams literally watched New York Times reporters show up at the door of the house. The suspect’s name was in the Times and it was on social media, so the FBI made the decision to withdraw,” he said.
Two members of the chat room described Teixeira to The Washington Post Wednesday night.
‘He’s fit. He is strong. He’s armed. He’s trained. Pretty much everything you’d expect from a crazy movie,” said one of the members.
He described him as “a young, charismatic man who loves nature, God, shooting guns and racing cars.”
During an intense search for the source of the leaks, The Washington Post reported seeing videos and photos of the man, as well as recordings of his interactions with members of the group.
The inside of Teixeira’s childhood home in Bristol, Massachusetts, matched photos of the sensitive files about US intelligence and the war in Ukraine that have been shared on forums since late last year, according to the Times
This document appears to reflect the state of Ukraine’s air defenses in February and May, when they are expected to be severely depleted
In a video seen by The Post, the man can be seen at a shooting range with a large rifle, wearing goggles and earmuffs. The man looks into the camera and shouts racial and anti-Semitic slurs, then fires several rounds at a target.
News helicopter footage aired Thursday of his arrest showed the suspect in red shorts, hands behind his back, being placed in an unmarked SUV by heavily armed officers.
The FBI said in a statement that its agents continue to conduct “authorized law enforcement activities at the residence” where he was arrested.
Brandon Van Grack, a former Justice Department national security prosecutor who now works at the law firm Morrison Foerster, said the likely charges could be as high as 10 years in prison, even if Teixeira had no intention of causing harm.
“I think this is someone who has been in prison for years because the leaks were so damaging,” Van Grack said.
His arrest comes after President Joe Biden said on the third day of his trip to Ireland that investigators were “getting closer” to finding the source.
Biden also said he was not “concerned” about sharing the documents that threatened US assets around the world because the information is not “contemporary.”
The intelligence in the files contains information suggesting that Ukraine will soon run out of artillery and could potentially endanger U.S. intelligence sources around the world.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned that rules on access to classified documents could be tightened as a result of the leak.
He said he “would not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to protect our country’s secrets.”
“Every member of the United States Service, (Department of Defense) civilian and contractor with access to classified information has a solemn legal and moral obligation to protect it and report suspicious activity or behavior,” he said.
Going further than Austin, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder called the leak of classified information a “deliberate, criminal act.”
And hours after Teixeira’s arrest, Mike Turner, the Republican congressman who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, vowed to “investigate why this happened, why it went undetected for weeks, and how to prevent future leaks.”