NEW YORK, April 14. /TASS/. US Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira, accused of leaking classified Pentagon documents, worked on special communication network used for transmission of classified documents and therefore had necessary clearance, CNN reported Friday citing an unnamed Department of Defense representative.

According to the report, Teixeira’s duties did not imply working with classified documents or their preparation or transmission to superior officers - instead, Teixeira worked on the network that stored and transmitted this information. He was assigned a corresponding clearance level in case he was exposed to the intelligence itself. The serviceman used this opportunity in order to download briefings and reports that interested him.

Previously, the media reported that Teixeira, 21, joined the National Guard in 2019, and received clearance for top secret documents in 2021. His clearance level allowed him to not only download classified documents, but to take them home, where he photographed them.