US President Joe Biden for the first time commented on the leak of classified documents and instructed intelligence agencies to limit their distribution.
The statement was published by the White House on April 14.
"While we are still determining the validity of these documents, I have directed our military and intelligence community to take steps to further protect classified information and limit its dissemination."
The American TV channel CNN told the details about the suspect Jack Teixeira. On the Discord platform where the documents were posted, he used his real name and home address in North Dayton, Massachusetts, for payment information, which helped identify him. On April 12, the Discord platform provided the FBI with information about the account that hosted the documents.
Also, according to court documents, Teixeira was worried about being caught trying to decipher documents at work, so he started taking them home. In addition, Jack Teixeira used his work computer to search for the word "leak" in classified information. Presumably, he was seeking an intelligence community assessment of who leaked the classified documents to the Internet.
- On April 6, it became known that classified military documents related to the counteroffensive of the Defense Forces of Ukraine in the war against Russia were published on social networks (Twitter and Telegram), and on April 7, it became known that a second batch of secret documents of the American authorities was published online. They are talking not only about Ukraine, but also about the activities of the USA in the Indo-Pacific region, in the Middle East, actions to fight terrorism and rivalry with China.
- On April 9, Bellingcat reported that documents from the Pentagon began to appear on the Internet as early as January 2023 on some Discord servers where video game fans chatted.
- On April 10, the Pentagon confirmed that due to the leak of documents, "very sensitive secret" information became public. On April 13, the FBI arrested 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, a suspect in the leak of classified Pentagon data.