Massachusetts Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira, who pleaded guilty in March to federal criminal charges of improper disclosure of classified information, will face a military court-martial.
Teixeira, a 21-year-old Portuguese descendant, admitted to having illegally collected some of the United States' most sensitive secrets and shared them on the social network Discord.
The former member of the National Guard faces military charges of disobedience of orders and obstruction of justice, reported the Associated Press (AP).
The US Air Force said in a statement on Wednesday that Jack Teixeira will be tried at Hanscom Air Force Base, in Massachusetts, but a date has not been set.
At a hearing in May, military prosecutors said a court-martial is appropriate given that obeying orders is the military's "absolute code."
But Teixeira's lawyers argued that further action would amount to trying him twice for the same crime.
Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Information Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, worked as a cyber transportation systems specialist, essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks.
He was arrested just over a year ago, in the biggest national security breach in recent years, and pleaded guilty on March 4 to six counts of intentionally withholding and transmitting national defense information, under an agreement with prosecutors. which requires him to serve at least 11 years in prison.
He is scheduled to be sentenced in that case in September.
Authorities involved in the criminal case said that Teixeira began by scanning the confidential documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that were marked 'SECRET' and 'TOP SECRET'.
The escape exposed to the world secret assessments of Russia's war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops.
Teixeira also admitted to having published information about a US adversary's plans to harm US forces serving abroad.
The stunning security breach raised alarms about the US' ability to protect its best-kept secrets and forced President Joe Biden's administration to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout.
The information leaks shook the Pentagon, which strengthened controls to safeguard confidential information and disciplined members who it found had intentionally failed to take the necessary measures regarding Teixeira's suspicious behavior.
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