Air Force disciplines 15 service members over Discord leaks

The Air Force has disciplined 15 Air National Guard service members following an investigation that found a “lack of supervision” and failure to report questionable activity that allowed 21-year-old Jack Teixeira to leak U.S. military secrets online earlier this year.

In a report released to Congress on Monday, which was launched in April and completed in August, Air Force officials said Teixeira was found to have acted alone in allegedly releasing hundreds of classified documents to the social media platform Discord, with no evidence his superiors were aware of such leaks. 

But the Air Force Inspector General investigation also found evidence that some members in Teixeira’s unit, reporting chain and leadership “had information about as many as four separate instances of his questionable activity” but failed to take action, according to an eight-page summary of the document first reported by The Washington Post. 

The service has since disciplined 15 personnel, ranging in rank from staff sergeant to colonel, for “dereliction in the performance of duties,” Air Force officials said in the statement.

Air National Guard leaders took disciplinary and other administrative actions against the 15 individuals between Sept. 7 and Dec. 2, with some removed from their positions and some receiving administrative action known as nonjudicial punishment, the statement noted.

Among those punished was Col. Sean Riley, the commander of the 102nd Intelligence Wing of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, which Teixeira reported to. Riley “received administrative action and was relieved of command for cause,” the officials said.

Another individual was Col. Enrique Dovalo, head of the 102nd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group, who “received administrative action for concerns with unit culture and compliance with policies and standards.”

Officials did not say how Dovalo was punished. 

Several other low-ranking service members were previously suspended in April from their roles in the 102nd Intelligence Support Squadron and have since been “permanently removed from those positions,” according to Air Force officials. 

Though he held a relatively low-ranking position in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, Teixeira, a technology support staffer, had access to the Pentagon’s Joint Worldwide Intelligence Communication System. He worked at Otis Air National Guard Base in Cape Cod, Mass. 

He allegedly first started leaking military secrets on Discord, a popular messaging platform for video gamers, by summarizing intelligence reports he came across. Over the course of several months, he eventually began printing and taking photographs of classified intelligence on U.S. allies and adversaries and posting it to the website, official say.

Printing, photographing and sharing classified information is a crime, and Teixeira was arrested in April and charged in June with six federal counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information, for which he has pled not guilty.

The disclosure sent shockwaves across the U.S. intelligence community, with many astounded by how long Teixeira was able to release such secretive information unbeknownst to military leaders. 

Even more alarming, Teixeira had been admonished in September and October 2022 for concerning actions related to his handling of classified information.

The Air Force Inspector General said those red flags should have been addressed by Teixeira’s unit, but that they “failed to take proper action after becoming aware of his intelligence-seeking activities.”

Such activities include an incident around July or August of 2022, when Teixeira was seen viewing intelligence content on top secret-sensitive compartmented information websites. His supervisor was informed, but the incident was not documented in writing.

Then, in September, a unit member noticed Teixeira again viewing intelligence “and saw him writing information on a Post-it note.” 

“Teixeira was confronted about the note and directed to shred it. However, it was never verified what was written on the note or whether it was shredded,” the report states.

But after his supervisor and another unit member documented the event — with Teixeira directed to stop taking notes on classified information and “to cease all research where he did not have a need to know” — the incidents were not reported to the proper security officials.

The next month, during an intelligence briefing, Teixeira “asked very detailed questions and even attempted to answer questions using suspected Top Secret-Sensitive Compartmented Information, information he did not have a need to know.” 

Leadership there questioned how he knew the information he was citing, as it was not believed to be publicly available. Teixeira was again ordered to “cease and desist” his research and the incident was documented but again went unreported to the right security official. 

In the final incident, in January, a unit member saw Teixeira viewing intelligence content after being previously ordered to cease and desist. The supervisor was informed, as were more senior members of the squadron’s leadership, but after some internal discussion, “security actions were not taken and no further inquiry or investigation occurred.”

A small number of unit members had a more complete picture of Teixeira’s intelligence-seeking behaviors “and intentionally failed to report the full details of these security concerns/incidents,” fearing security officials might “overreact,” the inspector general wrote.

“Had any of these members come forward, security officials would likely have facilitated restricting systems/facility access and alerted the appropriate authorities, reducing the length and depth of the unauthorized and unlawful disclosures by several months,” they said. 

The inspector general also said leaders in the unit “were not vigilant in inspecting the conduct of all persons who were placed under their command.”

In a Monday statement, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said all service members have a duty to protect classified information and “when there is a breach of that sacred trust,” they must be held accountable.

“Our national security demands leaders at every level protect critical assets, ensuring they do not fall into the hands of those who would do the United States or our allies and partners harm,” Kendall said.