Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts National guardsman accused of sharing national intelligence secrets online, is set to make another appearance in court this week. Teixeira, a 21-year-old cyber defense operations specialist, was taken into federal custody last week at his family's home in Dighton and on Friday was charged with crimes related to the disclosure of classified information about the war in Ukraine. GBH News legal analyst Daniel Medwed joined Morning Edition hosts Paris Alston and Jeremy Siegel to discuss the specific charges and how national security crimes have been treated in the past. This transcript has been lightly edited.
Paris Alston: This whole thing is kind of wild right here. Not only is there a Massachusetts connection — there's always a Massachusetts connection — it's in Dighton, right? A place where even the people who live there are like, we're never on the map. And to be put on it for something like this is pretty wild. But more importantly, the fact that a low-level, 21-year-old I.T. professional in the National Guard could have access to such top-secret information here and put be able to put it in such jeopardy is pretty crazy. How serious are the charges that we're talking about here?
Daniel Medwed: They are quite serious, Paris. He's been charged with two federal crimes. The first is essentially the unauthorized retention and transmission of national defense information. And the second is unauthorized retention and removal of classified...
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