Air force discipline personnel after investigation in Teixeira
WASHINGTON – The Air Force has disciplined 15 service members for dereliction of duty following an investigation into Jack Teixeira, an Air National Guardsman accused this year of posting classified documents online.
A general investigation by Air Force inspectors concluded that people from Airman Teixeira’s unit, the 102nd Intelligence Wing at the Otis Air National Guard base at Joint Base Cape Cod, in eastern Massachusetts, failed to take appropriate action after they had become aware of the pilot’s intelligence activities.
But the investigation, made public Monday, found no evidence that members of airman Teixeira’s chain of command were aware of his activities.
As a result of the investigation, 15 enlisted personnel and officers faced disciplinary action as of September, the Air Force said in a statement. Col. Sean D. Riley, the wing commander, was relieved of command, it added.
The inspector general’s investigation was separate from a criminal investigation into airman Teixeira’s actions led by the Justice Department. Airman Teixeira pleaded not guilty to six counts of federal criminal charges in June, two months after his arrest.
Frank Kendall, the secretary of the Air Force, ordered the service’s inspector general to look inside the wing where Airman Teixeira had served as an information technology specialist. The investigation also examined how the pilot could have posted hundreds of national security documents in a chat room. From there, the documents had ended up on Twitter and the messaging platform Telegram.
New questions about the command surfaced in May, when a Justice Department filing revealed that Air Force officials caught Airman Teixeira taking notes and searching for classified materials months before he was indicted, but failed to keep him from his job had dismayed.
On two occasions, in September and October 2022, the airman’s superiors at Otis Air National reprimanded him after reports that he had taken “concerning actions” in handling classified information. Among other things, according to the court file, he put a note in his pocket after reviewing classified information in his unit.
That information raised questions about whether the military missed opportunities to stop or limit one of the most damaging intelligence leaks in recent years.
The Air Force statement said indirect factors that had enabled Airman Teixeira’s unauthorized disclosure included “failure of commanders to adequately inspect areas under their command, inconsistent guidelines for reporting safety incidents” and “inefficient and ineffective processes for administering disciplinary action, lack of supervision/oversight of night shift operations, and failure to provide field investigation results with security clearance.”
In the statement, Mr. Kendall said that “every Airman and guardian has a solemn duty to protect our nation’s classified defense information. When a breach of that sacred trust occurs for any reason, we will act in accordance with our laws and policies to hold responsible individuals accountable.”