By SHANE HARRIS, SAMUEL OAKFORD, DEVLIN BARRETT
THE WASHINGTON POST • April 22, 2023
As part of its investigation, the FBI has spoken to friends of Teixeira who hung out with him in the Discord server, known as Thug Shaker Central, according to people familiar with the matter. The questions included how members of the server first came to know Teixeira, what video games they played together and whether any of the members were foreign nationals, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss interactions with law enforcement officials. (FBI/Facebook)
The FBI has been interviewing members of a private Discord server where a 21-year-old National Guardsman is alleged to have shared classified documents, an indication that law enforcement officials are trying to understand how potentially dozens of people may have had access to highly sensitive information before it circulated on the internet and was obtained by journalists.
Jack Teixeira was arrested last week and charged with illegally retaining and transmitting classified information on a server that he administered. He faces up to 15 years in prison. Teixeira has not yet entered a plea.
As part of its investigation, the FBI has spoken to friends of Teixeira who hung out with him in the Discord server, known as Thug Shaker Central, according to people familiar with the matter. The questions included how members of the server first came to know Teixeira, what video games they played together and whether any of the members were foreign nationals, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss interactions with law enforcement officials.
Members of the private Discord group previously told The Washington Post that foreign citizens, including from Russia and Ukraine, as well as Europe, Asia and South America, were among the roughly two dozen people who congregated on the server. The Post has not confirmed the presence of users from these locations.
Discord, which is a popular platform among online gamers, has said it is cooperating with the FBI's investigation.
For the past several years, U.S. intelligence officials have worried that gaming platforms like Discord created an opportunity for foreign governments to access U.S. secrets, including by encouraging people with access to classified information to share it online.
It was not clear whether the FBI had determined that foreign nationals were in Teixeira's server or whether any of them had connections to or worked for foreign governments. In at least one instance, the FBI has seized the electronic devices of a former member of the server, according to people familiar with the matter.
The FBI is responsible for collecting evidence of Teixeira's alleged crime. But it is also seeking to assess the damage from the "spillage" of classified information. Former members of the server told The Post that Teixeira shared hundreds of classified documents, including transcriptions he typed out and photographs of documents that covered subjects ranging from battlefield updates on the war in Ukraine to insights into foreign countries and officials that the U.S. intelligence community is monitoring.
Two former members said additional accounts were part of the server, describing them as apparently inactive or "bots" that can be set up by Discord users to do things like play music.
One former member of the server told law enforcement officials that Teixeira began sharing classified documents in December. But two others told The Post that he provided documents earlier than that, beginning around last summer.
The classified documents appeared to be restricted to members of the server during that time. Former members said there was an unspoken rule not to share them beyond the small circle.
But unbeknown to the group, on Feb. 28, a teenage member began posting several dozen photographs showing classified documents on another Discord server affiliated with the YouTuber "wow_mao." Some of the documents offered detailed assessments of Ukraine's defense capabilities and showed how far U.S. intelligence has tapped into Russia's military command.
On March 4, 10 documents appeared on "Minecraft Earth Map," a Discord server focused on the popular video game. A user operating the account that posted the smaller tranche of images told The Post they obtained them on wow_mao.
Secret and top-secret documents were now available to thousands of Discord users, but the leak wouldn't come to the attention of U.S. authorities for another month.
The Justice Department is unlikely to charge members of the server for viewing or sharing the classified information, based on past cases. Historically, the government has almost always charged only individuals with security clearances, which legally obligate them not to share classified information with people who aren't authorized to see it.
A notable exception to that rule is WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom the Justice Department has charged with violating the Espionage Act for allegedly working with former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to obtain and disseminate secret documents.
Assange's alleged actions are similar to reporting work at many traditional news organizations. But the Justice Department has sought to distinguish his work from that of a reporter, arguing that Assange is not a journalist and that he engaged in "explicit solicitation of classified information," as John Demers, then a senior department official, said at the time of Assange's charging in 2019.
Members of the Discord server said Teixeira shared the information with the group on his own, part of his desire to keep his online tribe informed about world events.
He wanted to "keep us in the loop," a former member said, and provided access to insider knowledge that the members understood was kept from most people.
It appeared Teixeira understood he was not authorized to share the information with others.
"He's a smart person," the former member said. "He knew what he was doing when he posted these documents, of course. These weren't accidental leaks of any kind."
He added that Teixeira also didn't seem motivated by a desire to inform the broader public about government wrongdoing, as earlier leakers have claimed when explaining their actions.
"I would definitely not call him a whistleblower. I would not call [Teixeira] a whistleblower in the slightest," the former member said.
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