It seems national security experts agree – Jack Teixeira shouldn’t have even had access to the classified documents he allegedly leaked.
In court filings that came out ahead of Thursday's detention hearing, prosecutors questioned how Teixeira received top secret clearance – considering he had been suspended in high school for comments made about guns and violence, and had been repeatedly denied a firearms license because of concerns raised by local police.
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Investigators have also since discovered what they called an arsenal of weapons in his bedrooms at his parents’ homes, an alleged fixation with mass shootings, as well as alarming discussions online about killing people and creating an assassination van.
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Counter-terrorism and military experts say these revelations should lead to changes in the top secret clearance vetting process.
“I would have thought that through the vetting process, there might have been some disqualifiers," counter-terrorism expert Todd McGhee said. "Why that didn’t happen is less about Mr. Teixeira and more about the process.”
A federal judge, meanwhile, is still weighing whether Teixeira will be held pending trial, or released.
“The more we learn, the worse it gets and the more questions I have about why we didn’t catch this sooner, why someone in his chain of command or in the intelligence services didn’t realize that he was such a threat to our national security," Congressman Seth Moulton said.
