As the Biden administration's investigation closed in on the alleged source of a leak that saw scores of classified documents containing sensitive information on Ukraine, Israel, and other U.S. allies posted online, the FBI announced it had "made an arrest and is continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts" on Thursday afternoon.
NEW: The FBI has arrested the suspected intel leaker.
— Jacqui Heinrich (@JacquiHeinrich) April 13, 2023
"The FBI made an arrest and is continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts. As this is an ongoing matter, we cannot provide further comment at this time.”
In extremely short remarks on Thursday afternoon, Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed that 21-year-old Jack Douglas Teixeira had been arrested by FBI agents "without incident" earlier on Thursday "in connection with an investigation into alleged unauthorized removal, retention, and transmission of classified national defense information."
Garland confirmed that Teixeira was "an employee of the United States Air Force National Guard" and said the arrested suspect "will have an initial appearance at the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts" in the coming days.
Noting that "this investigation is ongoing," Garland said the Department of Justice "will share more information at the appropriate time."
WATCH: AG Garland's full statement on the arrest of the classified intelligence leaker. pic.twitter.com/kgJ2sobPVQ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 13, 2023
Garland departed the podium without taking any questions from reporters at the Department of Justice, mirroring the Department of Defense's tight-lipped briefing that also took place on Thursday in which very few details were given despite even more questions being raised now that a suspect has been identified and taken into custody.
The Pentagon's Gen. Pat Ryder insisted Thursday that the Biden Department of Defense "is taking the issue of this unauthorized disclosure very seriously" and claimed that "stringent guidelines" are in place to prevent classified material from becoming public. Those supposedly strict rules, clearly, were not strict enough to prevent this serious leak that expanded unnoticed for weeks on end.
"This was a deliberate criminal act."
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 13, 2023
Air Force Brigadier, Gen. Pat Ryder, insists strict "rules are in place" to ensure classified material is not leaked, and following the military leak by a national guardsman, distribution lists have been "reviewed".https://t.co/rozhrOpOQu pic.twitter.com/gKEcuY1KJG
The biggest question now is why the Biden administration had a policy that allowed a 21-year-old national guardsman to have access to the nation's secrets and then share scores of classified documents online for months before getting caught? And why were online sleuths and news outlets such as The Washington Post and New York Times able to focus in on a suspect before federal authorities?
As Townhall reported previously, the Biden administration was caught "off guard" when the massive breach of national defense information was discovered "weeks" after the classified information first started getting spread around online.