Garland: Pentagon leaks suspect arrested 'without incident'

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks to the press on Thursday. (Pool)

Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed Thursday that Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested in connection with the leaking of classified documents.

"FBI agents took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident," Garland said at a news conference.

The arrest was connected to the "alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information," Garland said.

The attorney general said Teixeira will be arraigned in a federal court.

Garland declined to answer questions.

Watch Garland's remarks here: 

CNN's Hannah Rabinowitz contributed reporting to this post.

Attorney General Merrick Garland is speaking now from Washington, DC, following reports that a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested by the FBI on Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online.

The arrest of Jack Teixeira, 21, comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers.

Teixeira had been identified by The New York Times ahead of his arrest Thursday as the leader of the group where a trove of classified documents was posted.

As a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard was arrested in connection with the leak of classified US documents, agents were seen in aerial footage directing the 21-year-old suspect to move toward an armored vehicle with his hands on his head. CNN's Josh Campbell said the apparent "overwhelming show of force" was used because of the suspect's background in the military.

Agents took extra precautions because the report disclosed him being a gun enthusiast, Campbell said.

The next steps, Campbell said, is investigating the residence of the suspect, which is now considered a crime scene.

"The feds will be there for a long time, because of course they need to determine: Are there additional classified documents that are inside that residence? [According to] what we've seen in past cases, the feds will get their search warrants lined up ahead of time in order to go in and search that top to bottom," he said.

Agents will be on the lookout for any location where a computer, a phone or digital files could be stored, Campbell said

Jack Teixeira is arrested on Thursday. (WBZ)

The FBI arrested Jack Teixeira Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, according to a US official familiar with the matter. 

Teixeira, 21, is a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. His arrest comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers.

Teixeira was first identified by The New York Times Thursday ahead of his arrest as the leader of the group where a trove of classified documents was posted.

Jack Teixeira is seen in this photo taken from Instagram. (From Instagram)

Watch here:

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said the leaking of a trove of classified information on social media sites was a "deliberate criminal act," and the department is looking at how it protects such information.

"We continue to review a variety of factors as it relates to safeguarding classified materials. This includes examining and updating distribution lists, assessing how and where intelligence products are shared and a variety of other steps. I would say, though, that it is it is important to understand that we do have stringent guidelines in place for safeguarding classified and sensitive information," Ryder said.

"And so, again, I think that's important to understand that we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that the people who have a need to know, when it comes to this kind of information, have access to that. We're always going to learn from every situation. But again, this is something that will continue to look at," he continued.

According to a US official familiar with the matter, law enforcement have arrested Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, on Thursday in connection with the leaking of classified documents.

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder speaks during a media briefing on Thursday. (Alex Brandon/AP)

The Pentagon declined to comment on reports of an impending arrest of the suspected leaker of classified intelligence documents Thursday, saying only that the Pentagon and other agencies are working “around the clock” to get a better sense of the leak. 

He said officials are working with other agencies and the intelligence community to "better understand the scope, scale, and impact of these leaks."

"Just as we're limited in what we can say about the DOJ’s ongoing investigation will be also very limited in what we can say about any of the documents themselves," Ryder said.

Law enforcement is expected to soon arrest a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard in connection with the leaking of classified documents that have been posted online, according to a law enforcement source.  

The guardsman is 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, according to the New York Times, which reported that he is the leader of an online gaming group where a trove of classified documents was posted.

Some background: The FBI had narrowed the number of people who they believe could be responsible for the leaks and have been conducting interviews in recent days, two people briefed on the matter said earlier.

While there's a large number of people who had access to the documents, investigators have been able to home in on a small number for closer scrutiny, thanks to the forensic trail left by the person who posted the documents. Investigators are working on building a case for prosecution, people familiar with the matter say. 

A major leak of classified Pentagon documents has rattled US officials, members of Congress and key allies in recent days.

Now a criminal investigation is being led by the FBI’s Washington field office to find who is responsible. The FBI had narrowed the number of people who could have leaked the information and have been conducting interviews in recent days, two people briefed on the matter said earlier. 

What we know about what happened: The documents appeared online last month on the social media platform Discord, according to screenshots of the posts reviewed by CNN.

The posts are photos of crumpled documents laid on top of magazines and surrounded by other random objects, such as zip-close bags and Gorilla Glue. It is as if they had been hastily folded up and shoved into a pocket before being removed from a secure location, a source familiar with these kinds of documents told CNN.

A Discord spokesperson confirmed in a statement Sunday that they are cooperating with law enforcement on the investigation.

Those documents discovered on Friday all bore classified markings, some top secret — the highest level of classification.

Some of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, expose the extent of US eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine. Others discuss Russia's war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian servicemen fire at Russian positions in the Donbas region last month. (Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images)

Leaked Pentagon documents contain a wide range of highly classified information – providing a rare window into how the United States spies on allies and adversaries alike.

CNN has reviewed 53 leaked documents, all of which appear to have been produced between mid-February and early March.

Some of the documents, which US officials say are authentic, expose the extent of US eavesdropping on key allies, including South Korea, Israel and Ukraine.

On Russia and Wagner Group: Others reveal the degree to which the US has penetrated the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group, largely through intercepted communications and human sources, which could now be cut off or put in danger.

On Ukraine's military and Zelensky: Still, others divulge key weaknesses in Ukrainian weaponry, air defense, and battalion sizes and readiness at a critical point in the war, as Ukrainian forces gear up to launch a counteroffensive against the Russians – and just as the US and Ukraine have begun to develop a more mutually trusting relationship over intelligence-sharing.

One document reveals that the US has been spying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That is unsurprising, said a source close to Zelensky, but Ukrainian officials are deeply frustrated about the leak.

The US intelligence report, which is sourced to signals intelligence, says that Zelensky in late February “suggested striking Russian deployment locations in Russia’s Rostov Oblast” using unmanned aerial vehicles since Ukraine does not have long-range weapons capable of reaching that far.

Signals intelligence includes intercepted communications and is broadly defined by the National Security Agency as “intelligence derived from electronic signals and systems used by foreign targets, such as communications systems, radars, and weapons systems.”

On South Korean officials: Yet another document describes, in remarkable detail, a conversation between two senior South Korean national security officials about concerns by the country’s National Security Council over a US request for ammunition.

The officials worried that supplying the ammunition, which the US would then send to Ukraine, would violate South Korea’s policy of not supplying lethal aid to countries at war. According to the document, one of the officials then suggested a way of getting around the policy without actually changing it – by selling the ammunition to Poland.

Read more.