Swalwell on Greene over leak remark: ‘This wouldn’t be the first time she sided with traitors’

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) slammed Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) over her comments defending Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, who was arrested Thursday for his alleged role in leaking Pentagon files.

“McCarthy’s top lieutenant is siding with one of the biggest traitors America has seen,” Swalwell wrote in a tweet on Thursday.

“I’m sorry, Marge, being white, male, and Christian is not license to betray your country and put the lives of thousands at risk,” he added. “But this wouldn’t be the first time she sided with traitors.”

Swalwell’s remarks come in response to Greene’s own comments on the arrest of Teixeira. 

“Jake Teixeira is white, male, christian, and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime,” Greene wrote in a Twitter post. “Ask yourself who is the real enemy? A young low level national guardsmen? Or the administration that is waging war in Ukraine, a non-NATO nation, against nuclear Russia without war powers?”

Teixeira, 21, was taken into custody by the FBI on Thursday, according to the Justice Department.

His arrest comes as a slew of apparent Pentagon documents appeared online in recent days, with some including confidential information on U.S. and NATO support to Ukraine amid the sovereign country’s ongoing war with Russia and others including information apparently collected through spying on allies such as Israel and South Korea. 

The New York Times reported that Teixeira oversaw the Discord group where the documents were shared. 

In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland indicated that Teixeira could face charges under the Espionage Act.

“Today the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information,” Garland said.

In a separate statement, the FBI said that it had “aggressively pursued investigative leads” over the past week and that the arrest “exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk.”