In the wake of the most recent classified leak case—this time allegedly involving a 21-year-old Air National Guard IT specialist, not a president—lawmakers on Capitol Hill are redoubling efforts to classify less information. But as lawmakers await more details on how cyber transport systems specialist Jack Teixeira was allegedly able to disseminate highly sensitive military documents on the chat app Discord, the growing consensus among lawmakers is that America’s classification protocols need to be overhauled.
“It seems to me like we're trying to protect so much that the job becomes impossible, and then inevitably, things that really, really matter slip through the cracks,” US representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters upon leaving a classified briefing on the leak late last month. “That's the lesson for me, is if you try to do absolutely everything, then you can't do the things that you really want to do.”
Over-classification is one bookend, as Senate Intelligence chair Mark Warner puts it, which was on display as classified documents were found in the possession of President Joe Biden, former president Donald Trump, and former vice president Mike Pence. But this latest case reveals problems on the other end of the spectrum: Too many people have security clearances.
“Now we, in a sense, have potentially the worst of both worlds, where we have an over-classification problem and, at the same time, in the public domain it’s been reported that we have more than 4 million people with clearances,” Warner says. “So how do you square those?”
Lawmakers in both parties are now looking to technology for help as they negotiate how to best protect American secrets, while—if proponents get their way—also increasing transparency.
The FBI arrested Teixeira on April 13 after a series of US military documents, some labeled “Top Secret,” surfaced online. Teixeira allegedly shared the documents with members of a Discord server as early as last December. Members of the Discord group reportedly claim that hundreds of documents, many of which pertain to Russia’s war against Ukraine, were shared with the group.
On Wednesday, two of Teixeira’s commanders were suspended, “pending further investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified information,” according to the US Air Force. In its 42-page filing, released ahead of Teixeira facing Magistrate Judge David Hennessy of the US District Court in Massachusetts on Thursday, the Department of Justice accuses the IT specialist of trying to destroy evidence and looking up mass shootings on his federal government computer. The Justice Department also claims Teixeira’s former access to classified information “far exceeds what has been publicly disclosed.”
On Thursday, DOJ lawyers also said Teixeira owns a large number of firearms and that they found social media posts where he says he wants to kill a “ton of people.” Defense lawyers argued that Teixeira never meant for the classified material to be widely—let alone internationally—disseminated. The magistrate was skeptical.