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WASHINGTON—The U.S. government is treating the apparent disclosure of classified material surrounding the war in Ukraine as an insider’s leak, people familiar with the matter say, but hasn’t yet homed in on key suspects for a massive intelligence breach that has exposed the challenges of safeguarding sensitive U.S. information and tested ties with some of America’s closest allies.

CNN —The person behind a massive leak of classified US military documents worked on a military base and posted sensitive national security secrets in an online group of acquaintances, The Washington Post reported Wednesday. The leaker, going by the moniker “OG,” began posting messages to the Discord chatroom last year that referenced military jargon, The Post reported. In the months that followed, the leaker posted messages in which he appeared to transcribe classified information from US documents, according to the report. “If you could think it, it was in those documents,” the friend and member of OG’s Discord group told the Post. Bellingcat, an investigative outlet, first reported on the connection between the leaked documents and the two Discord servers.

☆ Intelligence leak: NYT: Leader of online group where leak documents were posted is a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Kevin Liptak Jeremy Herb Natasha Bertrand Evan Perez | Kevin Liptak | Jeremy Herb | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —A 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman has been identified by The New York Times as the leader of an online gaming chat group where a trove of classified documents was posted. CNN has not independently verified the identity of the chat leader or the FBI’s interest in talking with him. While there’s a large number of people who had access to the documents, investigators have been able to home in on a small number for closer scrutiny thanks to the forensic trail left by the person who posted the documents. On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that the person behind the leak worked on a military base and posted sensitive national security secrets in an online group of acquaintances. The Pentagon has begun to limit who across the government receives its highly classified daily intelligence briefs following a major leak of classified information discovered last week.

☆ Pentagon document leak suspect taken into custody, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

The suspected Pentagon leaker was reportedly arrested Tuesday by federal agents in Dighton, Massachusetts. Investigators believe the leaker is Jack Teixeira, 21, a guardsman specializing in intelligence. The leaker shared highly classified documents about the Ukraine war online. Investigators believe that the guardsman, who specializes in intelligence, led the online chat group where the documents were posted. FBI agents converged Thursday at Teixeira's Massachusetts home and heavily armed tactical agents took a man wearing a T-shirt and shorts into custody outside the property.

☆ Intel leaks: Biden says US 'getting close' on investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Steve Holland | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The number of documents leaked is likely to be over 100. Biden, on a three-day tour of Ireland, said he was not overly concerned about the leak. "There's a full blown investigation going on, as you know, with the intelligence community and the Justice Department, and they're getting close but I don't have an answer," Biden told reporters. "I'm not concerned about the leak, I'm concerned that it happened but there is nothing contemporaneous that I'm aware of." A South Korean presidential official said on Sunday the country was aware of reports about the leaked documents and planned to discuss "issues raised" with Washington.

Reuters has reviewed more than 50 of the documents, labeled "Secret" and "Top Secret" but has not independently verified their authenticity. This could help investigators focus their effort, though many people could have had access to these documents. Some images also depict printouts of documents with time stamps at the top right corners showing when they were printed. One of the leaked documents rests on a table and in the right corner of the picture is what appears to be a bottle of Gorilla super glue. U.S. officials told Reuters on Sunday that they have not ruled out the possibility that the documents may have been doctored.

☆ US will 'turn over every rock' to find source of leak, says Pentagon chief
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Idrees Ali | Thomson Reuters | National Security Correspondent Focusing On The Pentagon In Washington D.C. Reports On U.S. Military Activity | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 11 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday said the United States will investigate the recent purported leak of classified documents until the source of them was found. "We will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it," Austin said during a press conference at the State Department. "These are things that we will find out as we continue to investigate," Austin added. Investigators are working to determine what person or group might have had the ability and motivation to release the intelligence reports. The leaks could be the most damaging release of U.S. government information since the 2013 publication of thousands of documents on WikiLeaks.

☆ Ukraine battles rage, Kyiv reported to rethink counter-offensive after leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Pavel Polityuk | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The head of the Moscow-controlled part of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces now held 75% of the city. As the battles ground on, U.S. media outlet CNN reported that Ukraine was forced to amend some military plans ahead of its long-anticipated counter-offensive because of the leak of dozens of secret documents. HOT ON THE EASTERN FRONTA Ukrainian counter-offensive has long been expected after months of attritional warfare in the east. Elsewhere, Russia's defence ministry said its forces destroyed a depot with 70,000 tonnes of fuel near Zaporizhzhia, and Ukraine reported widespread Russian shelling in northern regions. In a rare coordination between the warring parties, Russia and Ukraine carried out another prisoner swap, with 106 Russian captives freed in exchange for 100 Ukrainians.

U.S. officials have said some giving battlefield casualty estimates from Ukraine appeared to have been altered to understate Russian losses. Ukraine said its president and top security officials met on Friday to discuss ways to prevent leaks. The Pentagon said that over the weekend, U.S. officials spoke with allies and had notified the relevant congressional committee about the leak. Some of the most sensitive information is purportedly related to Ukraine's military capabilities and shortcomings. Michael Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official, played down the lasting impact of the leak.

☆ Twitter executives reportedly think an ex-employee leaked the company's source code under the name 'FreeSpeechEnthusiast'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Twitter is leading a manhunt for a GitHub user who posted some of the company's source code online. Some Twitter execs think the leaker is an employee who left last year, The New York Times reported. In the past, Musk has said he plans to make some of Twitter's code public. Most recently, he said he would open source Twitter's code for recommending tweets by March 31. Read The New York Times' full story in its website.

☆ Meta CTO reportedly tells employees the company tracked down a leaker and severed ties with them
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta's CTO told staff the company identified a worker who leaked information, The Verge reported. Lynch, who showed off the leaked designs in his YouTube video, told Insider he does not "normally" pay for leaked information. The YouTuber previously told Command Line that the Meta leaker "might have asked because I wasn't willing to give much money up front." Insider previously reported that an online user found an unreleased Meta VR headset in a hotel room and posted photos and a video of the device on Facebook. Zuckerberg has said Meta and Apple are in "very deep, philosophical competition" when it comes to selling VR headsets and building the metaverse, The Verge reported in July.

☆ Progressives blast Supreme Court over secret payments of at least $1 million to the ex-Bush official who reviewed the leak investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The Supreme Court failed to disclose its past relationship with Michael Chertoff, CNN reported. Chertoff, a security consultant, recently reviewed the court's internal leak investigation. The firm also assessed COVID-19 practices at the court, CNN reported. The hidden payments come as progressive groups, congressional lawmakers, court observers, and ethics advocates demand greater financial transparency at the Supreme Court, which is not required by law to disclose its contracts. A spokesperson for Chertoff declined to comment and referred Insider to the Supreme Court's public information office for questions.

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday belatedly issued the first ruling of its nine-month term that started in October, more than a month behind its normal schedule. Conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the court's first opinion, with the justices ruling unanimously against Navy veteran Adolfo Arellano in a technical dispute over disability benefits. The court dismissed a second case concerning the scope of attorney-client privilege without issuing a written ruling. With the court term running from October to June, the first opinions are usually released in November or December. Adam Feldman, who tracks Supreme Court statistics, found that this term is the first since 1917 that the court had not released a ruling by the beginning of December.

WASHINGTON — Supreme Court justices spoke with the official in charge of the investigation into the leak of an unpublished draft of an opinion in a consequential abortion case, a court official confirmed Friday. Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, who led the probe, said in a statement that she "spoke with each of the justices, several on multiple occasions." The justices "actively cooperated," Curley said, and after following up on all leads she concluded that neither the justices nor any spouses were implicated. "On this basis I did not believe that it was necessary to ask the justices to sign sworn affidavits," Curley added. The lack of signed affidavits suggests that the justices were not formally interviewed in the same way as court staff.

☆ The Supreme Court's investigation raises questions about the justices' determination to find the abortion draft leaker
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Oma Seddiq | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The Supreme Court could not determine who leaked a draft abortion ruling last May. Yet the 20-page report has raised concerns about the rigor of the court's investigation. "During the course of the investigation, I spoke with each of the Justices, several on multiple occasions," Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley, who conducted the investigation, said in a statement. An executive-branch investigation may have led to the justices speaking under oath, a line the Supreme Court marshal did not cross, according to her statement. The Supreme Court's marshal did not note any new leads in her report.

☆ A Supreme Court marshal found no 'credible leads' that justices or their spouses leaked the draft Dobbs decision — but also didn't ask them to swear on it either
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

The Supreme Court marshal said Friday that she interviewed the justices after the draft Dobbs leak. A month later, the Supreme Court issued its final 6-3 ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, prompting several states to impose strict restrictions on the termination of a pregnancy. In the statement issued Friday, Supreme Court Marshal Gail A. Curley said she had spoken to all the justices during the course of her investigation, some more than once. According to the report issued Thursday, investigators spoke to 97 court personnel, all of whom were required to swear to the truth of what they were saying. Some, the report noted, had indeed "admitted to telling their spouses about the draft opinion or vote county, so they annotated their affidavits to that effect."

The report said investigators interviewed 97 court employees but was silent on whether the nine justices who sat on the court at the time of the leak were interviewed, prompting calls from Democratic lawmakers and others for clarity. "During the course of the investigation, I spoke with each of the justices, several on multiple occasions," Curley said in the statement, released by the court. "I followed up on all credible leads, none of which implicated the justices or their spouses," Curley added. Curley said on that basis she decided it was not necessary to ask the justices to sign sworn affidavits affirming they did not leak the draft, something court employees were required to do. Gabe Roth, executive director of the court reform group Fix the Court, said the fact that the report initially omitted the fact that the justices were interviewed "smells fishy."

☆ Trump calls for Politico journalists to be jailed over Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization leak
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Madison Hall | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Trump ranted about the journalists who published a draft of the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health opinion. He called on authorities to arrest the journalists to get them to divulge the leaker's identity. The Supreme Court's investigators said on Thursday they were unable to figure out the leaker's identity. On Thursday, the Supreme Court announced in a press release that investigators could not identify the leaker within the court despite interviewing 97 court employees. Nine minutes after his first tirade against the Politico journalists, Trump again called for them to be arrested.

☆ Supreme Court probe fails to find who leaked abortion ruling
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Abortion rights demonstrators protest outside the United States Supreme Court as the court rules in the Dobbs v Women's Health Organization abortion case, overturning the landmark Roe v Wade abortion decision in Washington, U.S., June 24, 2022. An investigation into the leak of a bombshell Supreme Court ruling overturning the federal constitutional right to abortion — weeks before it was officially released — failed to identify the culprit, the court said Thursday. Investigators had interviewed nearly 100 Supreme Court employees in the probe, 82 of whom had access to electronic or hard copies of the draft opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito. In June, just as the leak report suggested, the Supreme Court in a majority opinion penned by Alito said there was no federal right to abortion. The opinion came in a case known as Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which challenged Mississippi's restrictive abortion law.

☆ Prince Harry's William resentment makes 'Spare' a royal tragedy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Vicky Ward | Vicky Ward Is The Author Of | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

“I was twenty the first time I heard the story of what Pa allegedly said to Mummy the day of my birth,” Harry writes. So, too, despite all Harry’s resentment, seems to be his brother. William stays by Harry’s side the night before Harry’s wedding, only leaving to stay the night with Kate and his kids. But on this topic, Harry’ resentment gets the better of him. They’ll read “Spare” and see that, personalities aside, the chief culprit for Harry’s lifelong resentment is the unfortunate law of primogeniture.

☆ Alito says leaked abortion opinion made conservative justices 'targets for assassination'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Zoë Richards | Zoë Richards Is The Evening Politics Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said Tuesday night that the leak of the draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade this year endangered the lives of justices by putting a target on their backs. Alito, who was nominated by former President George W. Bush and is part of the court’s 6-3 conservative majority, authored the draft and the final opinion that removed constitutional protections for abortion. Now we're in a new term," Alito said Tuesday, adding that the justices and staff members "want things to get back to normal, the way they were before all of this last term, before Covid." Additional security measures were put in place in the aftermath of the leak and in response to demonstrations outside several justices’ homes. Last week, a Georgia man was arrested on weapons charges after police said they found two handguns and a shotgun in a van he was driving in Washington with plans to “deliver documents” to the Supreme Court.

☆ Trump joked that the 'only way' to find the SCOTUS leaker from Roe decision is threaten they will be the 'bride of a prisoner'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Katie Balevic | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Donald Trump said threats of being a "bride of another prisoner" should be used to find the source of the Dobbs leak. In a rambling monologue, Trump lamented about how "in this country, they leak all over the place, even on the Supreme Court." "By the way, you have to find the leaker of the Supreme, you have to find the leaker. This person leaked from the Supreme Court." And you say, 'That's okay, you're going to jail.'

☆ Supreme Court announces partial reopening to public for new term
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | Lawrence Hurley Covers The Supreme Court For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

The court said in a statement Wednesday that people will be able to attend oral arguments when its new term starts Monday, although "the building will otherwise remain closed to the public." In March 2020, the justices initially pivoted to holding remote oral arguments by teleconference before they resumed in-person oral arguments in a largely empty courtroom last fall. In a major development, the court began livestreaming audio of oral arguments at the beginning of the pandemic, for the first time allowing the public to hear the court proceedings without being present in the courtroom. Throughout the pandemic, tourists have been barred from the court building, with only some court staff members, lawyers and journalists allowed access at certain times. In June, as the court issued its abortion ruling and other big decisions, a security fence surrounded the court.

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