Journalists from The New York Times have identified a person who may be involved in the leak of secret Pentagon documents – this is 21-year-old US Air Force soldier Jack Teixeira. He is the moderator of the Thug Shaker Central private online chat where these documents first appeared.
Two U.S. officials, speaking to The New York Times, confirmed that investigators want to talk to the pilot about the circumstances of the leak.
The Thug Shaker Central chat consists of 20 to 30 people, mostly teenagers. The journalists talked to several chat participants and one of them said that he knew the person who leaked the information. According to the description, this is Teishera, the newspaper writes.
According to the newspaper’s interlocutors, one of the chat participants published the documents on a public online forum, after which they were picked up by Russian-language Telegram channels.
Teixera himself refused to speak to reporters, saying he needed a lawyer.
Earlier on April 13, the Washington Post reported that the leak of classified documents to the network was the fault of a young man, "who is 20-something years old", he works at a US military base. According to the publication, he merged these documents into a group on the Discord platform. It consisted of about 20 participants, united by "a joint love for weapons, military equipment and God." This was reported to WP by two members of this group.
The classified information that was leaked to the network included information and forecasts of the US military regarding the war in Ukraine. In particular, one could find information in the documents that Serbia agreed to supply weapons to Ukraine. They also contain forecasts regarding the course of the war, information on the supply of weapons, wiretapping of state leaders, and much more.