OPINION:
President Biden is no Jack Teixeira.
Come to think of it, that goes for other powerful Washington denizens who carelessly handled classified documents: former President Donald Trump, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Mr. Biden kept five sets of classified vice presidential materials at his China-funded think tank, his Delaware home and his garage.
Mrs. Clinton famously decided she was so special as secretary of state she set up her own at-home computer server to store state.gov emails, some of them containing classified information.
Mr. Pence had a few classified papers in his Indiana home.
Mr. Trump turned Mar-a-Lago, his Florida expanse, into a repository for secret stuff on his “swamp” enemies. He argues that as president, he had the constitutional power to declassify documents — in some cases, just by thinking about it. No pen and paper needed.
Mr. Trump was gaslighted by the Hillary Clinton campaign and its surrogate FBI. Together they peddled the hoax dossier all over town, including judges, the CIA and Washington’s most powerful arsenal: the news media.
But the Biden-Hillary-Trump-Pence quartet can’t compete with the nation’s first Generation Z champion leaker — 21-year-old Jack Teixeira. The suspected leaker instantly enters the pantheon of famous secrets busters, alongside Russia-ensconced Edward Snowden and imprisoned Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.
At a military base in Massachusetts, the lowly Air National Guardsman held the title of cyber defense operations journeyman (FBI affidavit) or cyber transport systems journeyman (Air Force news release).
Whichever description is correct — guardian against foreign hackers or Maytag repairman — his status gave him 24/7 digital entry into the jewelry shop of Pentagon intelligence analysis, including the super-hush-hush Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information.
His chatterbox was a Discord platform complex of like-minded Gen Zers. This is the generation particularly addicted to screens and to the Democratic Party. They gave Dems a big voting edge in the 2022 midterms and work humorlessly at boycotting conservatives who want to talk face to face to actual people.
Beginning in December, Discord became Airman First Class Teixeira’s gateway to publicly spread classified analysis on China, South Korea, Ukraine and other global flashpoints. At first, he turned the reports into text. But he worried he might be caught by an office busybody. He began taking the stuff home to photograph and post as images, according to an eight-page FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court in Boston.
For weeks, his newsy tidbits circulated on the web but didn’t get a lot of attention until around April 6, when The New York Times reported their existence.
Around that time, a government office — perhaps the National Security Agency — detected that he was using his military computer to penetrate classified intelligence networks, word-searching “leak” to see if they were on to him.
They were.
The FBI has at least one source in Airman Teixeira’s instant message chat-verse. Identified only as “User 1,” this person regularly spoke with the alleged leaker, who went by the telltale “Jack,” via a special server video. The cave is where the gang “discussed geopolitical affairs and current and historical wars,” the affidavit says. As server administrator, Airman Teixeira ran the show.
User 1 actually facilitated the leaking in February by taking Discord-posted images and spreading them on the internet.
The informant was quite chatty, not just in the virtual world but also with the FBI, in person.
“User 1 described the individual … as a white male who was clean-cut in appearance and between 20 and 30 years old,” the affidavit says.
By April 12, Discord provided his name and address. User 1 took a look at a driver’s license photo and said yes, that’s him.
The FBI spotted “dozens” of classified images “on various public Internet sites,” the affidavit said.
“One of the documents that was posted on Server 1 by [Airman Teixeira] was a document that described the status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, including troop movements, on a particular date,” the FBI said. “The government document is based on sensitive U.S. intelligence, gathered through classified sources and methods, and contains national defense information.”
I reviewed some classified online images. Airman Teixeira allegedly posted the “Daily Intelligence Update” for the two most powerful U.S. military officials: the secretary of defense and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This particular edition reads like a current events newsletter.
One “top secret” paper said South Korea was concerned that the Biden administration would take its ammunition and give it to Ukraine.
The Pentagon said on April 18 it was still scrambling to round up all the Teixeira releases.
What effect will the Gen Zer have on President Biden?
Airman Teixeira is a godsend. All special counsel Robert Hur needs to do is compare the deliberate antics of a 20-something with the forgetfulness of an old man. Exoneration.
For Mr. Trump, his special counsel, Jack Smith, can point to Airman Teixeira as the reason the former president should be criminally charged. You see, Mr. Biden has stated publicly he will use his constitutional powers to destroy Mr. Trump as a candidate.
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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