WASHINGTON – Pentagon “Geeky Leaks” suspect Jack Teixeira said online he wanted to murder a “ton of people” in the name of “culling the weak minded” and talked about rigging an “assassination van,” federal prosecutors alleged.
The new revelations about the 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman appeared in a court filing ahead of a Thursday pre-trial detention hearing, in which prosecutors argued Teixeira should be kept behind bars not only to guard against more document leaks – but potentially to prevent him from inflicting violence on the public.
Magistrate Judge David Hennessy said following Thursday’s hearing he would rule on prosecutors’ request at a later date.
“The defendant undoubtedly poses a danger to the US at large based on his ability to cause exceptionally grave danger to the US national security,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in the motion. “However, there is also evidence to suggest that the defendant may also pose a physical danger to the community.”
In February of this year, Texeira told a fellow Discord user that he “was tempted to make a specific type of minivan into an ‘assassination van,'” and sought advice from another “about what type of rifle would be easy to operate from the back of an SUV,” according to court documents.
“He describes how he would conduct the shooting in a ‘crowded urban or suburban environment,'” prosecutors wrote, adding that last month, “the defendant described SUVs and crossovers as ‘mobile gun trucks’ and ‘[o]ff-road and good assassination vehicles.'”
Most alarmingly, the document says, Teixeira wrote on social media in November of last year that “if he had his way, he would ‘kill a [expletive] ton of people’ because it would be ‘culling the weak minded.’
Throughout this period, Teixeira is suspected of publishing sensitive classified documents to a Discord social network server he ran from home to show off to his online gamer buddies. Some of the documents later made their way into enemy hands, with Russians suspected of tampering with several of the Ukraine War-related papers he’d posted.
An investigation into his online history also revealed Teixeira had searched for terms related to major US mass shootings, including “Las Vegas shooting; Mandalay Bay shooting; Buffalo tops shooting and Uvalde,” according to an FBI report filed by prosecutors.
Teixeira also had ample access to firearms, keeping a gun locker “approximately two feet from his bed.”
“In the gun locker were multiple weapons, including handguns, bolt-action rifles, shotguns, an AK-style high-capacity weapon and a gas mask,” prosecutors wrote. “FBI special agents also found ammunition and tactical pouches on his dresser and what appeared to be a silencer-style accessory in his desk drawer.”
A search of a dumpster at Teixeira’s North Dighton, Mass. home revealed he’d thrown away a tactical helmet with a GoPro camera mounting attached – as well as the GoPro itself – further raising suspicions since a number of mass shooters have been known to live stream their attacks.
But Teixeira’s defense team argued in response that prosecutors were improperly turning “to a caricature of Mr. Teixeira as a violent gun owner.”
“In asserting that Mr. Teixeira ‘had multiple weapons just feet from his bed,’ it ignores the blatant evidence demonstrating that those firearms were lawfully owned and properly stored and locked amidst his belongings.”
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Photos of the suspected leaker’s bedrooms in his mother and father’s homes also suggest he was obsessed with guns and warfare. Each room includes a boyish mix of LEGOs next to shooting targets riddled with dozens of bullet holes and photos of troops with military-style rifles affixed to the wall.
Teixeira’s primary room – decorated with a camouflage net and military camo prints painted on the walls –appears to include a crude drawing of a makeshift assault vehicle with a military-style gun affixed to what appears to be a tank-like civilian van.
“[A National Guard] colleague told me that Teixeira was very quiet, but often talked about guns,” an FBI investigator wrote in the report. “He also said he believed he would be the first person Teixeira would shoot if Teixeira were to shoot anyone in the workplace.”
Prosecutors also cited a 2018 incident when Teixeira was suspended during his junior year of high school “when a classmate overheard him make remarks about weapons, including Molotov cocktails, guns at the school, and racial threats.”
Teixeira claimed he was referring to a video game, but the incident was enough for the local police department to deny him a gun permit in 2018 and 2019, according to court documents.
However, Teixeira’s attorney argued Thursday that wasn’t enough to raise the Air National Guard’s concerns to let him into the service or issue him the nation’s highest-level security clearance.
“The investigation was fully known and vetted by the Air National Guard prior to enlisting and also when he obtained his top-secret security clearance,” his defense wrote. “The government has spoken to individuals that Mr. Teixeira regularly communicated with online, yet no one has indicated that Mr. Teixeira took any steps to commit any violent act.”
The defense team further argued that the defendant would not have access to guns if released, as the FBI confiscated his weapons and his father’s were locked.
“This argument also ignores the most important question: whether Mr. Teixeira would have any access to any firearm upon release,” his lawyers wrote. “The answer is resoundingly no.”
Still, they noted their client understands that the prosecution’s accusations are disturbing, and offered several ways to release Teixeira while still keeping tabs on him with GPS monitors, supervision, and cameras.
“Mr. Teixeira acknowledges that the information provided by the government would concern any court,” his attorneys wrote. “Any speculated danger to any person or the community is sufficiently accounted for by the strict release conditions proposed.”
They also argued Teixeira would be busy with work if released, as he would be “obligated” to return under his active-duty status. However, it is highly unlikely that work would have anything to do with intelligence.
