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- May 13, 2023
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On April 13, a group of camouflage-clad FBI agents arrested 21-year old National Guardsman Jack Teixeira at his home in Massachusetts. Teixeira was charged with leaking classified documents containing national security secrets. He faces up to 25 years in prison, and has yet to enter a plea.
From the moment of Teixeira’s arrest, reports have emerged that the invitation-only Discord server where Teixeira leaked the documents was a cesspool of racist memes, offensive jokes, and gun fetishization. But on Saturday morning, the Washington Post released a much more wide-ranging report on Teixeira’s extremism, drawing on previously unpublished videos, chat logs, and interviews with several of Teixeira’s friends. This new evidence, writes the Post, suggests Teixeira was “readying for what he imagined would be a violent struggle against a legion of perceived adversaries — including Blacks, political liberals, Jews, gay and transgender people.”
In online posts, Teixeira called the mainstream media “zogshit,” a slur for “Zionist Occupied Government;” repeated January 6 false flag conspiracy theories; and referenced Waco and Ruby Ridge, two 1990s standoffs between law enforcement and armed extremists that have become a touchpoint for the far right.
“He used the term ‘race war’ quite a few times,” one close friend told the Post. “He did call himself racist, multiple times…I would say he was proud of it.” The friend, who said Teixeira was “very happy” after a white supremacist shooter killed 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in 2019, added that Teixeira “ would send me a video of someone getting killed, ISIS executions, mass shootings, war videos…He absolutely enjoyed gore.” The friend said Teixeira had told him “multiple times” about “his desire to shoot up his school” when he was in high school.
The Post uncovered videos of Teixeira shooting guns in his backyard as well as at a nearby gun range. At the latter, Teixeira recorded a video of himself using a racist slur before emptying a magazine. In the house he shared with his mother and stepfather, Teixeira amassed what the Post described as “a small arsenal of rifles, shotguns and pistols, as well as a helmet, gas mask and night-vision goggles.”
Teixeira remains in custody, as prosecutors argue that he poses a flight risk. A detention hearing originally scheduled for last Thursday was canceled.
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