Pentagon leaker sentenced to 15 years for sharing classified documents online

HOUSTON, US

A man who stole hundreds of classified documents from the Pentagon and shared them online was sentenced Tuesday to 15 years in prison, according to news outlets.

Jack Teixeira, 22, pleaded guilty to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information in March.

Prosecutors were seeking a 17-year sentence for the former Massachusetts Air National Guard member.

"All of the responsibility falls on my shoulders...and I accept what that may bring," said Teixeira in an interview with Providence, Rhode Island television station WJAR-TV.

During his sentencing, Judge Indira Talwani noted the document leak happened after Teixeira received extensive training that covered the consequences for leaks and after he was warned about the way he handled classified material.

"Despite that, you posted on the internet hundreds of documents over the period of a year," said Talwani.

After Teixeira’s sentencing, Jodi Cohen, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, called Teixeira "one of the most prolific leakers of classified information in American history," who put classified information on the internet almost every day for more than a year.

"He transmitted it to our adversaries and our allies across the world," said Cohen.

Some of the information that Teixeira 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.

"He leaked information that the government determined was likely to cause grave damage to the United States," said Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy at a news conference.

"We won’t know the full extent of Jack Teixeira’s damage for several years" added Levy.