Jack Teixeira, 21, was named the prime suspect in the leaking of classified Pentagon documents through a Minecraft-themed Discord server.

The documents contained sensitive U.S. defense and intelligence information. United States Attorney General Merrick Garland identified Teixeira, an airman in the Massachusetts Air National Guard, in a press release on April 13. Garland stated that Teixeira, who went by “Jack the Dripper” or “OG” online, was arrested “in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information.”

Teixeira is accused of sharing sensitive material to a Minecraft-themed Discord server named “Thug Shaker Central.” The documents had been shared in March 2023, where they would eventually be posted to websites like 4chan and Twitter and later covered on Russian news channels.

The leaks center around the war in Ukraine including detailed conversations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his top military officials and information that Egypt was covertly attempting to supply rockets to Russia.

The documents also disclosed U.S. concerns over China conducting experimental weapons testing.

Two members of the Discord server were interviewed by The Washington Post, who described the server as “a venue for dark humor and outrageous comments.” Both members reported viewing a video of Teixeira at a shooting range shouting bigoted and antisemitic slurs before firing a rifle at the target.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green, a Republican congresswoman from Georgia, came to Teixeira’s defense in a tweet that read, “Teixeira is white, male, Christian and antiwar. That makes him an enemy to the Biden regime.”

In a follow-up report released on April 13, The Washington Post quoted a friend of Teixeira who was described, as a “devout Catholic” who often spoke of God in Discord messages. The friend additionally stated that Teixeira often referred
to government raids on far-right compounds in the 1990s as reasons for his “extremist, anti-government anger.”

The leak has drawn comparisons to prior intelligence breaches, including Edward Snowden leaking documents about the National Security Agency’s spy programs in 2013 and Chelsea Manning’s disclosure of diplomatic records in Afghanistan and Iraq in 2010.

The Teixeira leaks have caused major concern, as the extent of the documents leaked is still unknown, and many of the documents are from as recent as March.