Images of leaked classified documents had been posted to some chat rooms

The leaker of a classified military intelligence document was an online friend of acquaintances: “It’s funny, right?” tweeted OG Teixeira

The person behind a massive leak of classified US military documents worked on a military base and posted sensitive national security secrets in an online group of acquaintances, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The Post reporting, which CNN could not independently verify, covers new ground in identifying the supposed leaker of highly classified documents – including some that paint a pessimistic US view of the war in Ukraine – and provides the first known details about who may be behind a major national security breach that has rocked Washington in recent days.

The leaker was part of a group of about two dozen people on the social media platform, which is popular with video game players, that shared a love of guns and military gear, The Post reported.

The Post reported that an anonymous user posted messages that appeared to be transcripts of classified intelligence documents that the member declined to identify, as they were what OG indicated he brought home from his job on a military base.

“OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility that prohibited cellphones and other electronic devices, which could be used to document the secret information housed on government computer networks or spooling out from printers,” according to the Post.

Discord is aware of Teixeira’s arrest and has cooperated with US law enforcement on the investigation, a Discord spokesperson told CNN in a statement Thursday night.

The group member said he wanted them to be kept in the loop. According to the Post, “OG” believed that his insider knowledge would offer the others protection from the troubled world around them.”

Jack Teixeira, 21, was arrested Friday morning in Massachusetts after being tweaked by the FBI: The Discord “server” disappeared online after the Discord leaks

The Discord chatroom, or “server,” disappeared from online after news of the leaks broke last week, according to a CNN review of Discord servers. Some of the documents were subsequently posted by Discord users to another invitation-only server. CNN found that some people on the platform thought the document were fake, because they didn’t think anyone would post them online.

As a result of a coronaviruses outbreak that initially confined people to their homes, the popularity of Discord has gone up.

Several US officials tell CNN that the leaks began months ago on a first chatroom called “tweaked” by Jack Teixeira. The FBI affidavit corroborates the timelines.

Teixeira, a 21-year-old airman with the Massachusetts Air National Guard, made his first appearance in federal court in Boston Friday morning following his arrest by the FBI in North Dighton, Massachusetts, the day before.

According to charging documents, Teixeira held a top secret security clearance and began posting information about the documents online around December 2022, and photos of them in January.

Lucca had stature on the platform, and it gave him anonymity to keep the documents on the platform for weeks. Multiple users assumed that there was no way anyone could post US military secrets to the platform.

Lucca was a “respected user,” one Discord user who said they knew Lucca told CNN in a text conversation, and it was expected that Lucca would take the images down. But they did not. Four users who talked to CNN said the images stayed up for weeks in a number of the chat rooms because they were lightly moderated.

One user said that Lucca would add “fresh off the press” after posting the documents. He posted them for attention. It was very common for him to ping everyone,” the user said.

Verifiably Classified Documents are not allowed on Discord in the Terms of Service – Article by A.J. Shed More On Discord

The Sharing of documents that may be verifiably classified is not allowed on Discord in the terms of service.