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Takeaways from Jack Teixeira’s first interview from prison
The former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman told ABC News he doesn’t feel he betrayed his country in leaking highly classified military documents.
A former Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who leaked highly classified military documents said he’d do it all again if given the chance — even as he serves a 15-year prison sentence for one of the most consequential national security breaches in years.
Jack Teixeira, 23, told ABC News in his first interview from prison that he doesn’t feel he betrayed his country in exposing assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine and other closely guarded national secrets.
“Just the opposite,” the Dighton native told ABC News. “I believe that I educated a lot of the people who have been kept in the dark and who were being lied to about this, concerning all of the things that had been going on.”
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Here are four takeaways from Teixeira’s interview:
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Ex-guardsman says his goal was education, not treason
Teixeira was adamant in describing himself as a “patriot” and said he did not set out to harm the U.S., but to educate its people “about what was going on.” Teixeira also told ABC News he felt he had accomplished his mission “to a significant degree.”
Federal prosecutors accused Teixeira of using his top-secret clearance to leak classified documents on Discord, a social media platform popular with gamers, in 2022 and 2023. The former IT specialist pleaded guilty last year to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. He also pleaded guilty in March to military charges of obstructing justice, calling himself a “proud patriot.”
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Speaking to ABC News, he said the apology he offered during his federal sentencing last November was not an expression of remorse for the leak, but for the fallout he caused family and friends.
“I still believe in my actions,” Teixeira added in the interview.
Teixeira’s mother also speaks out
His mother, Dawn Dufault, told ABC News her son’s 2023 arrest “was a complete surprise to me.”
“The first inkling I had that anything was awry,” she told the news outlet, was when reporters arrived at her home that morning hoping to speak with Teixeira. “I still didn’t believe it; it was unbelievable to me.”
Dufault told ABC News her son has obsessive-compulsive disorder and was recently diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, which she believes may have factored into his actions.
“I think that that also played into his compulsion to go against his oath that he took to the government,” she said in the interview. “I feel like part of it was possibly uncontrollable because of what we now know is autism.”
Dufault described her son as a “good kid,” telling ABC News, “I think he needs a second chance. I think he’s still destined for something great. I always have, and I still feel that way.”
Teixeira is appealing to Trump for a pardon
Teixeira railed against the U.S. Department of Justice during his court-martial in March, alleging federal prosecutors were “politicized against President Trump and myself,” the Associated Press reported. He called on Trump’s administration to reverse his convictions.
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Speaking to ABC News, Teixeira referred to himself as a “sacrificial lamb” who had been “crucified to be made of as an example.”
“I just feel like there are people who have done far worse things as far as what they did with similar information, and they didn’t get as bad of a treatment as I did,” he told the news outlet. “But my case was specifically politicized by the Biden administration.”
Teixeira claims he was encouraged to do ‘due diligence,’ despite warnings
While Teixeira had been repeatedly warned not to divulge classified information, he alleged in his ABC News interview he was encouraged to do the “exact opposite to those directives” and do “due diligence and look at what we’re supporting,” and why.
Teixeira also accused former President Joe Biden’s administration of propagating “lies” about the “tactical and strategic aspect” of the war in Ukraine.
“I’ve tortured myself over and over and over again about what would happen if I didn’t do this, or what would happen if this and that. And in reality, it doesn’t really matter,” he told ABC News. “I still do believe that, yes, I would have done it again.”
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