Month: April 2023

FBI agents surrounded a Massachusetts home on Thursday in the arrest of 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, suspected of leading highly classified U.S. intelligence documents. U.S. officials had been searching for the source of the leak, which exposed potentially hundreds of pages of intelligence about Russian efforts in Ukraine and spying on U.S. allies.

Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in brief remarks at the Department of Justice that FBI agents took Teixeira into custody Thursday afternoon without incident, adding: ‘Today, the Justice Department arrested Jack Douglas Teixeira in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defense information. Teixeira is an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard.’

The FBI bureau office in Boston said in a statement that agents arrested Teixeira at a residence in North Dighton, Mass., more than an hour away from the military base where he worked.  The statement said: “The FBI is continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at the residence. Since late last week the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk.”

According to military records, Teixeira holds the rank of airman first class and has been in uniform since entering the Air National Guard in September 2019. He has been based at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod and holds the title of cyber transport systems journeyman. The classified documents from the Department of Defense were found online last month, revealing details of U.S. spying on Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine, secret assessments of Ukraine’s combat power, as well as intelligence gathering on America’s allies, including South Korea and Israel.

AG Garland said that Teixeira will have an initial appearance at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, adding that the investigation is ongoing.

Editorial credit: Bob Korn / Shutterstock.com

Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that the Justice Department will take an emergency dispute over medication abortion drugs to the Supreme Court. Garland’s announcement came after a federal appeals court froze parts of a Texas judge’s order on Wednesday, that would have suspended the FDA’s approval of a medication abortion drug, mifepristone. Mifepristone manufacturer Danco Laboratories also plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals only partially granted the request by the Justice Department and the drug’s manufacturer to put the ruling from US District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk on hold, effectively making the drug harder to obtain by leaving in place aspects of Kacsmaryk’s ruling that will reverse moves by the FDA that expanded access to medication abortion pills. A federal appeals court said Wednesday abortion drug can remain available but placed restrictions.

AG Garland indicated that the Justice Department will ask the Supreme Court to intervene now in the emergency dispute over how the FDA has approached mifepristone: “The Justice Department strongly disagrees with the Fifth Circuit’s decision in Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA to deny in part our request for a stay pending appeal … We will be seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court to defend the FDA’s scientific judgment and protect Americans’ access to safe and effective reproductive care.”

The appeals court ordered a return to the stricter FDA regime around the drug, which prevents mailing the pill to patients who obtained it through telehealth, or virtual visits with their providers rather than traveling to a clinic or hospital in person to obtain the drug. The restrictions also affect the instructions on the label for the medication, shortening the window of obtaining the pill to seven weeks into pregnancy as opposed to 10. The 5th Circuit said the current FDA rules around the drug “chose to cut out doctors from the prescription and administration of mifepristone … in fact, as far as the record before us reveals, FDA has not structured the distribution of any comparable drug in this way.”

Editorial credit: Crush Rush / Shutterstock.com