Minecraft player gets 15 years for leaking military secrets on Discord server

A US Air National guardsman has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for leaking confidential military documents on a Minecraft Discord server.

While the military vehicle simulator War Thunder is well known for hosting leaks of classified military secrets, things calmed down a bit when devs begged players to stop. Minecraft you say? Well, that’s a different story.

A 22-year-old ex-member of the US Air National Guard was recently sentenced to 15 years in prison for procuring and disseminating US military secrets on a Minecraft-oriented Discord server. The leaker; Jack Teixeira joined the military in 2019, Ironically serving as part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing’s cyber defense operations.

In 2022, he started the process of accessing military documents beyond his intelligence classification grade and sharing them online on a private Discord server. Initially reported by The Register, prosecutors told the courts that the documentation Teixeira shared was “highly classified and contained vital national defense information”.

Unsplash: @maria_shalabaieva

Discord was quick to assist authorities with the investigation.

“By posting intelligence products on the social media platform Discord to feed his own ego and impress his anonymous friends, Teixeira caused exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States,” the sentencing documentation explained. “The scope of his betrayal is breathtaking. The amount of damage he caused is immeasurable.”

Initially, Teixeira pleaded not guilty to the crimes he was accused of before changing his plea in March 2024. He would later admit to sharing materials that included details of America’s involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China’s development of a supersonic spy drone, and information surrounding ammunition negotiations with South Korea.

These documents were originally kept within the Minecraft Discord server that Teixeira ran before being leaked to 4chan and doctored to overexaggerate Ukrainian casualties. At this point, Teixeira pleaded with members of the Discord server to destroy any evidence before smashing his computers and hard drives and disposing of them in a dumpster near his home.

Authorities seized the hastily corrupted evidence and later arrested Teixeira. He was sentenced on November 12, 2024, to 15 years in federal prison according to a press release from FBI director Christopher Wray.

“This sentencing is a stark warning to all those entrusted with protecting national defense information: betray that trust, and you will be held accountable,” Wray announced. “Jack Teixeira’s criminal conduct placed our nation, our troops, and our allies at great risk.”