Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira pleads guilty to obstructing justice

WASHINGTON

Pentagon leaker Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to a military charge of obstructing justice, according to media reports Thursday.

Teixeira, 23, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was sentenced in federal court last year to 15 years in prison for leaking classified US national security documents online.

He faces potentially another 10 years in custody for the obstruction charge.

He is expected to be sentenced later on Thursday.

In remarks to the court ahead of his sentencing, Teixeira said he shared classified information with the public in a "brief moment of regret" and called himself a "proud American and a patriot.”

"It was my intent to expose and correct the lies manufactured and perpetuated by the Biden administration and force-fed to the American people by the mainstream media," he was quoted as saying by media outlets.

Teixeira had also pleaded guilty last March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information.

Some of the information that he leaked included US troop movements overseas, the providing of military equipment to Ukraine and discussions about a foreign adversary's plot to target American forces abroad.