Teixeira’s lawyers are urging U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani to sentence him to 11 years in prison, arguing in a recently filed memorandum with the court that the 22-year-old “is essentially still a child” and had no intention of causing no damage.

But prosecutors argued that Teixeira “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential acts violations of the Espionage Act in United States history” and urged Talwani sentence him to 16 and a half years in prison, according to a memorandum presented to the court.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m.

Teixeira, of Dighton, has been held without bail since his arrest in April 2023. pleaded guilty in March to six counts of intentionally retaining and transmitting Department of Defense information in violation of the Espionage Act.

He acknowledged that while working as a cyber defense operations officer assigned to the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, he published hundreds of documents containing classified military information about the Ukraine war and other sensitive intelligence matters. on Discord, a social network. popular platform among gamers. He admitted that he knew that information he shared between January 2022 and April 2023 could cause harm to U.S. national security and provide an advantage to foreign adversaries.

As part of a plea agreement, he agreed to participate in a briefing with military and government officials, and to provide any government documents that may be in his possession or control.

“His conduct was clearly misguided and ill-advised, but his motives and decisions were naive, not nefarious,” Teixeira’s attorneys, Brendan Kelley and Michael Bachrach, wrote in the defense brief. They described Teixeira as a bright but socially awkward child who faced bullying in high school and in the military, and was recently diagnosed with autism.

Teixeira joined the Air Force National Guard at age 18 and missed his high school graduation to attend basic training. He was isolated during the pandemic, according to his lawyers.

“His world was online: he played video games, posted memes, made deep friendships that he was never able to make in high school,” the defense wrote, noting that he was 20 years old when he began sharing classified information with his friends online, and only 21 when he was detained. “His intention was never to harm the United States. Instead, his intention was to educate his friends about world events to ensure they were not misled by misinformation.”

But prosecutors argued in their sentencing memorandum that Teixeira shared highly classified information on Discord “to feed his own ego and impress his anonymous friends” and that his posts caused exceptionally serious harm to U.S. national security.

“The scope of his betrayal is staggering,” prosecutors wrote. They also submitted a “classified submission” to the court under seal, arguing why the government should sentence Teixeira to a long prison term.

Teixeira continued to access information that was not related to his duties “even after his superiors warned him on two separate occasions not to take notes or perform in-depth analysis in search of information,” a prosecutor told the judge during the change of duty hearing. Teixeira statement.

Teixeira’s case captured global attention and fueled intense criticism from the Defense Department’s decision to grant Teixeira a high-level security clearance and its failure to detect his online activities for months as he posted classified information, investigated mass shootings and talked about killing people.

Inspector General of the Air Force issued a report in December 2023, concluding that there was a lack of supervision of Teixeira and that several officials did not take the required measures after becoming aware of his suspicious behavior. As a result, 15 staff members were disciplined last year.

You can contact Shelley Murphy at [email protected]. follow her @shelleymurph.