President Biden on Friday said the military and intelligence community will take steps to secure sensitive information in the wake of the arrest of the suspected leaker of hundreds of Pentagon records.
“While we are still determining the validity of those documents, I have directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further secure and limit distribution of sensitive information, and our national security team is closely coordinating with our partners and allies,” Biden said in a statement.
The president also commended the action by law enforcement to investigate and “respond to the recent dissemination of classified U.S. government documents.”
Jack Teixeira, the suspected leaker, was arrested on Thursday and charged on Friday with violating the Espionage Act and another statute that prohibits the unauthorized removal of classified documents.
The Espionage Act charges are related to the taking and copying of national defense information, as well as a provision of the law about willfully transmitting information that “could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”
Biden, ahead of the arrest on Thursday, said that investigators were “getting close” to identifying the source of a U.S. intelligence leak. The Defense Department and the Justice Department each opened an investigation into the incident.
But Biden said at the time that he was more concerned about how the leak occurred than what was revealed through it.
Several leaked documents that appeared to have classified information about the Russian invasion into Ukraine and other national security topics were posted on social media websites but only discovered last week. The roughly 100 leaked records has created an embarrassing situation for the Biden administration and forced the U.S. to respond by attempting to smooth things over with its allies this week.
One such bombshell revealed that Egypt was attempting to send some 40,000 rockets to Russia in secret. Other information included spy efforts by the U.S. on allies such as Israel and South Korea.