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Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, the suspect accused of leaking classified US intelligence, made a frantic final call to his gamer friends as the FBI closed in on him — professing he “never wanted it to get like this.”
“Guys, it’s been good — I love you all,” Teixeira, 21, was quoted as saying on the call, according to a member of an online group who goes by the screen name Vahki.
“I never wanted it to get like this. I prayed to God that this would never happen. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. Only God can decide what happens from now on.”
Speaking to the New York Times, Vahki said it sounded like Teixeira was in a speeding vehicle when he joined the call.
Teixeira was arrested Thursday by heavily armed federal agents clad in armor at his mother’s home in North Dighton, Mass. Attorney General Merrick Garland said he is to be charged with removing or transmitting classified national defense information — a crime under the 1917 Espionage Act punishable by years in prison.
Less than two hours before he was taken into custody, the Times outed Teixeira as the administrator of the 20- to 30-member channel “Thug Shaker Center,” hosted on the Discord gaming platform, where a tranche of intelligence reports — some marked “Secret” and “Top Secret” — first appeared.
