Accused Pentagon document leaker Jack Teixeira is demanding to be let out of jail on the basis that former President Donald Trump and his co-defendant Walt Nauta are free as they await trial on charges of mishandling classified White House documents.
The 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman has been behind bars since his April 13 arrest over allegations that he leaked secret military documents related to Russia’s war in Ukraine and other sensitive national security topics on the social media platform Discord.
Magistrate Judge David Hennessy granted prosecutors’ motion to keep Teixera in federal custody back in May after the Justice Department argued that the cyber transport systems journeyman could further obstruct justice or flee the country if released.
In court papers filed on Monday, Teixeira’s attorneys say that the 21-year-old has no financial ability or incentive to flee, and argue that the DOJ “greatly overexaggerates Mr. Teixeira’s risk to national security.”
They also note that Special Counsel Jack Smith did not seek to detain the 77-year-old former president or his aide despite the pair’s “extraordinary means to flee the United States.”
“Former President Trump and The Trump Organization own properties in multiple foreign countries, and former President Trump has access to a private plane. Yet, the risk of flight posed by their knowledge of national security information, and their abnormal ability to flee, didn’t even result in a request that either surrender their passport,” Teixeira’s lawyers argue.
“The government’s disparate approach to pretrial release in these cases demonstrates that its argument for Mr. Teixeira’s pretrial detention based on knowledge he allegedly retains is illusory,” they add.
Last month, Teixeira was indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense secrets.
He pleaded not guilty to each count, which is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
Trump has pleaded not guilty to 31 counts of willful retention of the classified documents as well as six other charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice and making false statements.
Nauta, a former White House military aide who was working for Trump as a body man at his Mar-a-Lago resort, has pleaded not guilty to six charges including conspiracy, concealing and withholding documents, as well as making false statements.
