Man Pleads Guilty For Top Secret Document Leak On A Minecraft Discord Server

Early in 2023, a Department of Defense leaker was nabbed after a year of posting sensitive documents to a Minecraft Discord server. Those documents made their way to sites like 4chan and elsewhere on the internet, and included a plethora of sensitive intelligence information. The leaker has since pled guilty and is facing up to a decade and a half in prison, as well as fines and potential military justice.

Back in April last year, 22-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira was arrested following the year-long leakage of documents pertaining to “the war in Ukraine, the U.S.'s snooping on its allies, American intelligence on ISIS and China, and other sensitive topics.” Initially, these documents appeared on a Discord server dubbed “Thug Shaker Central,” from where they spread to a memes Discord server, to a bigger Minecraft-oriented Discord server, and then to 4Chan. Initially, there were suspicions that this was an intentional leak to run counter-intel and disinformation, but that does not appear to be the case with this sentencing.

The dork who leaked classified United States military documents on a Minecraft Discord server has plead guilty. He is facing 10 years in prison.https://t.co/uQDw2cOIYO

— vx-underground (@vxunderground) March 5, 2024

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has reported that Teixeira has pled guilty to “retaining and transmitting classified National Defense Information on a social media platform beginning in or around 2022 and continuing until his arrest in April 2023.” More specifically, this boils down to six counts of “willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense (National Defense Information).” He faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 per charge, but reports indicate that he will serve anywhere from 11-16 years, according to ABC News.

Furthermore, as Teixeira was an active-duty service member, he may also face charges from the U.S. military in the near future. We will have to see if that happens, but in the meantime, stay tuned to HotHardware for the latest on this ongoing case.