Guardsman in leak case wanted to kill a 'ton of people': US

The Massachusetts Air National guardsman accused of leaking highly classified military documents kept an arsenal of guns and said on social media that he would like to kill a "ton of people," prosecutors said in arguing Thursday that 21-year-old Jack Teixeira should remain in jail for his trial.

"Somebody under the age of 30 has no idea that when they put something on the internet that it could end up anywhere in this world?" the judge asked. "Seriously?" But Nadine Pellegrini, chief of national security division in the Massachusetts U.S. attorney's office, told the judge the information prosecutors submitted to the court about the defendant's threatening words and behavior "is not speculation, it is not hyperbole, nor is it the creation of a caricature. It is based on what we know to date ... directly based upon the words and actions of this defendant.

He remains a grave threat to national security and a flight risk, prosecutors wrote, and investigators are still trying to determine whether he kept any physical or digital copies of classified information, including files that haven't already surfaced publicly. His lawyers are urging the judge to release him from jail, arguing in court papers filed Thursday that appropriate conditions can be set even if the court finds him to be a flight risk - such as confinement at his father's home and location monitoring.

They said FBI special agents also found ammunition and tactical pouches on his dresser, what appeared to be a silencer-style accessory in his desk drawer and a military-style helmet in the dumpster with a mounting bracket such as that used for a camera. The Justice Department's filing outlines a pattern of troubling behavior that officials say began well before he entered the military and continued in recent months, even as his position afforded him access to government secrets.

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