House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) contended that the suspected leaker of hundreds of classified military documents never should’ve had access in the first place.
Massachusetts Air National Guardsman 1st airman Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, was arrested last Thursday for allegedly leaking classified material, which included sensitive information about the war in Ukraine. Turner claimed that his panel is planning to convene hearings on the matter.
SUSPECT FIRST LEAKED TEXT OF CLASSIFIED DOCS AROUND DECEMBER, AFFIDAVIT SAYS
“There was no need to know for him of the information that he was accessing, and the Department of Defense admits in the affidavit that they had the ability to track him. That’s gonna be the questions my committee is going to be having,” Turner told CBS’s Face the Nation.
Teixeira worked as a cyber transport systems journeyman and allegedly posted sensitive material he obtained on the Discord platform, where it was later disseminated more widely. He made his first court appearance Friday on multiple charges for his unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information.
Turner hearkened back to the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which the intelligence community assessed it had been too compartmentalized with sensitive information. He argued the reforms made in the wake of the attack need to be revisited.
“Clearly, we’ve gotten too far where we have an instance where someone in Massachusetts who’s looking at documents with respect to war plans in Ukraine,” Turner added. “That’s what our committee is gonna be looking at is how do we make certain that we make changes.”
The chairman also countered assertions that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and others peddled based on the documents, suggesting that the United States had troops stationed in Ukraine.
“There are no U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine other than the troops that are normally in an embassy, protecting the embassy. We do not have boots on the ground,” he said. “[If Teixeira] is found guilty, it will be an espionage [violation], and so being a traitor to your country — that’s not someone to look up to.”
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Turner also weighed in on reports of the classified documents raising concerns that Ukraine is blowing through its ammunition too quickly.
“So, some of these documents would be in the form of management documents,” Turner said. “What they show is a to-do list and what we need to do our allies need to do to help Ukraine to replenish those. It doesn’t indicate that they have no other sources.”
