How open-source investigation site Bellingcat unmasked 'Pentagon leaker' Jack Teixeira BEFORE the FBI arrested him by tracing stolen documents to Discord server 'Thug Shaker Central'
- Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, was arrested by FBI in Massachusetts on Thursday
- It came hours after journalists publicly named him as the Pentagon leaker
- Investigative site Bellingcat led the way in publicly identifying leak's source
By KEITH GRIFFITH FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED: 16:47 BST, 14 April 2023 | UPDATED: 20:54 BST, 14 April 2023
Journalists appeared to be ahead of the curve in investigating the recent leak of highly classified Pentagon documents, publicly disclosing the leak and tracing its source before the DOJ announced charges in the case.
Air Force National Guardsman Jack Douglas Teixeira, 21, was arrested by FBI in Massachusetts on Thursday, over an hour after the New York Times and Bellingcat journalist Aric Toler identified him as the suspected leaker.
Court documents unsealed on Friday morning indicate that the FBI had identified Teixeira as a suspect at least by Wednesday, using witness statements and billing records from the messaging service Discord.
Bellingcat, an open-source investigation website that relies on public information to research a variety of subjects, was the first to publicly identify the Discord chatroom 'Thug Shaker Central,' where Teixeira allegedly posted classified documents under the username 'The OG.'
In a Bellingcat article last week, Toler meticulously traced the documents to their original source, after they had spread on pro-Russian Telegram channels, the website 4Chan, and multiple Discord servers.
US officials are still assessing the damage inflicted by the leaks, which included secret records detailing Ukrainian military vulnerabilities, and classified information about allies including Israel, South Korea and Turkey. Bellingcat journalist Aric Toler (left) was the first to publicly identify the source of the leaked documents, the 'Thug Shaker Central' Discord chatroom where Jack Teixeira (right) allegedly posted them as early as December 2022