#Air National Guardsman led online group where US documents leaked: report

Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, is the leader of the small online gaming group where a batch of classified intelligence documents leaked, according to The New York Times.

The Times reported Thursday that the national guardsman is a member of the branch’s intelligence wing in the state and was the head of the private online group “Thug Shaker Central,” where the documents leaked over the last few months.

The newspaper reported that the documents gained broader attention after a member of the group took several dozen of them and shared them to a different forum online that was public.

NBC News also reported the identity of the man.

The Hill has not independently confirmed Teixeira’s identity, and no one has been publicly named as a suspect in the probe.

The Air National Guard told The Hill that it would not comment on an ongoing investigation. The Hill has reached out to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment to the Times for its report.

Investigators want to speak with Teixeira about the leak, two officials confirmed to the Times, after he oversaw the community of about 20 to 30 people, mostly male teenagers and young adults. 

The leak of the documents, which purportedly gave insight into NATO information about the war in Ukraine, including death tolls and the training of Ukrainian troops, has left U.S. officials scrambling to try to find the source. Officials have not confirmed the validity of the leaked information.

The reported discovery of Teixeira’s identity comes after President Biden said on Thursday that investigators were “getting close” to discovering the source of the leaks.

—Updated at 1:36 p.m.