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(BOSTON, Mass.) — Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman who prosecutors said “perpetrated one of the most significant and consequential violations of the Espionage Act in American history,” was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release.

Judge Indira Talwani issued the sentence on Tuesday in Boston federal court.

Teixeira pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information.

Prosecutors had asked the judge to impose the maximum prison sentence of 200 months — more than 16 years — in prison.

“The harm the defendant caused to the national security from his disclosures of national defense information is extraordinary,” prosecutors said in a memorandum filed ahead of the sentencing hearing. “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 scope of his betrayal is breathtaking.”

The defense sought the minimum sentence, citing Teixeira’s autism and ADHD. They also argued he did not intend to harm the country, only to educate his online friends about world events.

“Jack is still essentially a child — at the very least, a ‘youthful offender’ — who has his whole life in front of him,” defense attorneys Michael Bachrach and Brandan Kelley stated in a memorandum presented to the judge ahead of sentencing. “At 22 years old, a sentence of 132 months’ imprisonment would provide more than enough time for him to grow and mature; informed by his behavior as well as from his punishment.”

“With the support of his family and mental health treatment providers, Jack should have little trouble living a productive life inside prison and upon his eventual release,” the memorandum continued.

Teixeira is also currently negotiating a disposition to his parallel, but related, military prosecution, the memo said.

According to the signed plea agreement filed with the court, Teixeira agreed to plead guilty to all six counts charging him with willful retention and transmission of national defense information. In exchange, prosecutors agreed not to charge him with additional counts under the Espionage Act.

Teixeira “accessed and printed hundreds of classified documents” and posted images of them on Discord prior to his arrest in April 2023, a prosecutor said during the plea hearing.

As part of his plea agreement, Teixeira must sit for a debrief with the Defense Department and the Justice Department and give back any sensitive materials that might remain in his possession.

Federal prosecutors have made clear Teixeira had no business peering at classified information because his low-level job did not require it.

“The defendant’s job was to troubleshoot computer workstations,” Assistant United States Attorney Jason Casey said during a March hearing.

Still, Casey said, Teixeira accessed “hundreds” of classified documents inside the secure facility where he worked and “purposefully removed classified documents and information despite admonishments from his superiors to stop.”

Teixeira has admitted in court to knowing the documents were marked classified.

Without mentioning specifics, federal prosecutors said Teixeira exposed information about the compromise by a foreign adversary of certain accounts belonging to a U.S. company and information about equipment the U.S. was sending to Ukraine, how it would be transferred and how it would be used upon receipt. Prosecutors said he also posted material about troop movements in Ukraine, a plot by a foreign adversary to attack U.S. forces abroad, and Western deliveries of supplies to the Ukrainian battlefield.

Teixeira enlisted in the Air National Guard in 2019, according to his service record, and had top secret security clearance beginning in 2021, according to the Department of Justice.

The Justice Department said he began posting classified documents online in January 2022.

Teixeira will also face a military court-martial on charges alleging he violated the Uniform Code of Military Justice, according to the U.S. Air Force.

The U.S. military reserves the right to separately prosecute a service member who has already been convicted in a federal court.

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(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Aviation Administration has banned U.S. flights to Haiti for 30 days in the wake of Monday’s gunfire incidents, according to a Notice to Air Mission issued Tuesday.

“U.S. civil aviation operations in the territory and airspace of Haiti below 10,000 feet” will be prohibited, according to the FAA.

The move comes after a Spirit Airlines plane flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Haiti was diverted after it was struck by gunfire while attempting to land in Port-au-Prince, according to the the Haitian National Office of Civil Aviation.

The plane was struck by gunfire four times while attempting to land at Touissant Louverture Airport in the capital city of Port-au-Prince, OFNAC said.

The Spirit Airlines plane “diverted and landed safely in Santiago, Dominican Republic,” Spirit Airlines said in a statement Monday, adding that no passengers reported injuries and one flight attendant onboard the plane reported unspecified “minor injuries” and was undergoing medical evaluation.

The plane came within 550 feet of the runway before aborting its landing and diverting to the Dominican Republic, according to data on FlightRadar24.

The FAA on Monday had confirmed in a statement that the Spirit Airlines flight landed safely in the Dominican Republic “after the plane was reportedly damaged by gunfire while trying to land” at the Port-au-Prince airport.

On Monday, a JetBlue flight from Haiti to New York City was also hit by a bullet, the airline said in a statement to ABC News. JetBlue said it would suspend all flights to and from Haiti through Dec. 2 due to the civil unrest in the country.

ABC News’ Aicha El Hammar Castano contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — Louisiana’s new law requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments was temporarily blocked on Tuesday by a judge who called it “unconstitutional on its face and in all applications.”

A multi-faith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools sued the state to challenge the law, HB 71, which mandates that public schools — from kindergarten to the collegiate level — display the religious text in every classroom on “a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches.”

The lawsuit argues that requiring poster-sized displays of religious doctrine in classrooms violates the plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights and the separation of church and state.

The suit further argues that the law violates a U.S. Supreme Court precedent, pointing to the Stone v. Graham case in which the court overturned a similar 1980 Kentucky law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.

Supporters of the law say the Ten Commandments have historical significance to the foundation of U.S. history and are not just a religious text.

In July, both parties agreed that the Ten Commandments would not be posted in any public school classroom and that defendants — including the state’s Louisiana State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education — would not publicly move forward on the law’s implementation until the court’s decision in November.

The legislation is one of several recent conservative-backed efforts to incorporate Christianity or religion into the classroom across the country.

In June, Oklahoma’s state superintendent ordered educators to incorporate the Bible into their lessons, an order that is also in the midst of a legal battle.

Florida also recently passed a policy which allowed volunteer religious chaplains to serve as student counselors. The ACLU has expressed “grave concerns” over Florida’s policy but legal challenges have yet to be filed in that matter.

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(HAUSER, Ore.) — A search is underway for a 5-year-old boy in Oregon who has been missing since Saturday.

Joshua McCoy went missing from his home in Hauser, according to the Coos County Sheriff’s Office. He and his mother had taken a nap Saturday afternoon, but when his mother woke up around 5:30 p.m. local time, Joshua was missing, according to the sheriff’s office.

Joshua has autism and may not respond when called, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office has activated CORSAR — the California Oregon Regional Search and Rescue Task Force — to help search for the child.

Drones and K-9 resources have been involved in the search. The sheriff’s office said it has also requested assistance from state and federal agencies, with additional resources expected to arrive on Tuesday.

The sheriff’s office said they have found “some clues” so far during the search, though “nothing definitive.”

“Nothing is being ruled out at this time as we are considering all possible avenues,” the Coos County Sheriff’s Office said in an update on Monday. “We maintain hope that Joshua will be found alive and well.”

Joshua, who turns 6 on Saturday, was described by authorities as 3 feet, 6 inches tall and 50 to 60 pounds, with brown eyes and brown shoulder-length hair.

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(ATHENS, Ga.) — The suspect accused of killing 22-year-old nursing student Laken Riley on the University of Georgia’s campus has waived his right to a jury trial.

The judge granted the defense’s motion for a bench trial for the suspect, Jose Ibarra, during a hearing in Athens-Clarke County on Tuesday.

The bench trial is scheduled to begin on Friday before Judge H. Patrick Haggard, who will render a verdict in the case.

Jury selection had been scheduled to start in the case on Wednesday.

When asked by Haggard if he understood the waiver of jury trial, and if it was “freely, knowingly and intelligently signed and considered,” Ibarra said yes.

The defense also said they agree with their client’s decision to waive a jury trial, and confirmed that the form had been translated appropriately into Spanish by a court interpreter for Ibarra.

Last month, Haggard denied the defense’s motion for a change of venue in the high-profile case.

Ibarra, 26, was indicted by an Athens Clarke County grand jury on malice murder and felony murder and other offenses in May. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Riley, a student at Augusta University, was found dead in a wooded area on the Athens campus on Feb. 22 after she didn’t return from a run. The indictment alleges Ibarra killed her by “inflicting blunt force trauma to her head and by asphyxiating her” and seriously disfigured her head by striking her “multiple times” with a rock.

Additional charges in the 10-count indictment include aggravated battery, kidnapping with bodily injury, aggravated assault with intent to rape, obstructing or hindering a person making an emergency telephone call and tampering with evidence. The latter charge alleged that he “knowingly concealed” evidence — a jacket and gloves — involving the offense of malice murder.

He was also charged with a peeping tom offense. The indictment alleges that on the same day as Riley’s murder, he spied through the window of a different person who lived in an apartment on campus. The judge last month also denied a motion seeking to sever that charge from the case.

Ibarra was denied bond following his arrest on Feb. 23 and is being held at the Clarke County Jail.

Police have said they do not believe Ibarra — a migrant from Venezuela who officials said illegally entered the U.S. in 2022 — knew Riley and that this was a “crime of opportunity.” Her death has become a rallying cry for immigration reform from many conservatives, including now President-elect Donald Trump.

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(NEW YORK) —  A federal judge in New York on Tuesday set a trial date for April 14 in the libel lawsuit that Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, brought against The New York Times.

The trial date was decided over the objections of both the plaintiff and defense, who asked for a date in July to give the two sides time to possibly reach a settlement out of court.

“This case should not require very much preparation since it’s a retrial,” Judge Jed Rakoff said during a conference Tuesday.

A federal judge in New York on Tuesday set a trial date for April 14 in the libel lawsuit that Sarah Palin, the former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential nominee, brought against The New York Times.

The trial date was decided over the objections of both the plaintiff and defense, who asked for a date in July to give the two sides time to possibly reach a settlement out of court.

“This case should not require very much preparation since it’s a retrial,” Judge Jed Rakoff said during a conference Tuesday.

“We just wanted to take some of the pressure off,” Turkel said.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this summer that Palin can again try to hold the paper liable for a 2017 editorial that wrongly suggested she incited the 2011 mass shooting that killed six people and wounded then-Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.

The federal appeals court said Rakoff made errors during the first trial that “impugn the reliability” of the jury’s verdict finding the Times not liable.

“If you’re seriously interested in settling you can settle in a matter of days,” Rakoff said Tuesday. “If you want to be referred to a magistrate for discussions I can do that on 24 hours’ notice.”

Rakoff, in a brief order last week, said the new trial “under no circumstances will be later than February 2025, and, if the parties prefer, can be as early as mid-December 2024.”

The appellate court said Rakoff erred when he excluded evidence about James Bennet, who oversaw the newspaper’s editorial board. Palin argued the evidence could help her show the Times acted with actual malice, the standard a public figure must meet to prevail in a libel case.

The 2017 editorial, entitled “America’s Lethal Politics,” linked the 2011 shooting of Giffords to a digital graphic of a crosshairs over Democratic congressional districts published in March 2010 by Palin’s political action committee. A relationship between the crosshairs map and the shooting was never established. Rather, at the time of the editorial, the attack was widely viewed as a result of the shooter’s mental illness.

Palin’s original defamation lawsuit was dismissed but, in 2019, the 2nd Circuit vacated the dismissal. The case went to trial in 2022, and Rakoff granted the Times’ motion for a directed verdict days before the jury found the newspaper was not liable for defaming Palin.

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(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request from Mark Meadows, the one-time chief of staff to former President Donald Trump, to move his Georgia election interference case into federal court.

Meadows was charged alongside Trump and 18 others last year in the Fulton County racketeering case over their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state. Meadows and the others pleaded not guilty to all charges, and four defendants subsequently took plea deals.

Meadows for months has sought to move his case into federal court based on a law that calls for the removal of criminal proceedings when someone is charged for actions they allegedly took as a federal official acting “under color” of their office.

Meadows had argued to the Supreme Court that a lower court erred when it rejected Meadows’ request to move the case out of state court and into federal court, in part by pointing to the court’s recent landmark ruling granting Trump some immunity for official acts.

“Just as immunity protection for former officers is critical to ensuring that current and future officers are not deterred from enthusiastic service, so too is the promise of a federal forum in which to litigate that defense,” the 47-page filing states.

Both a lower court and appeals court have rejected that claim, with one judge writing that Meadows’ actions charged in the indictment “were taken on behalf of the Trump campaign” and were not his official duties.

The Fulton County election interference case is largely on pause pending an appeal of ruling that allowed Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case after Judge Scott McAfee declined to disqualify her due to a “significant appearance of impropriety” stemming from a romantic relationship between her and a prosecutor on her staff.

A spokesperson for the DA’s office recently declined to comment when asked by ABC News for their views on the future of the case, given Trump’s reelection last week.

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(GREEN LAKE, Wis.) — A husband and father of three who vanished at a Wisconsin lake this summer may have faked his own death and fled to Eastern Europe, authorities said, and the sheriff is now urging the missing man to come forward.

“Our most important thing, for us, is to know that you’re safe,” Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said in his message to Ryan Borgwardt. “We can talk through all this and we can work things out.”

The case began on the morning of Aug. 12, when authorities learned Borgwardt, 45, hadn’t returned home and was last known to be on Green Lake, according to the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office.

Borgwardt last texted his wife on the night of Aug. 11, saying he was turning his kayak around and heading to shore soon, Podoll said.

Officials discovered Borgwardt’s overturned kayak and life jacket in the lake, authorities said, and they later found his fishing rod and tackle box.

Responders believed the missing dad drowned and they scoured the lake using divers, drones, sonar and cadaver K-9s, officials said.

“The search continued for about 54 days, with no sign of Ryan,” the sheriff said during a news conference on Friday. “Near daily drone searches were completed. And Bruce’s Legacy [a volunteer search organization] methodically searched approximately 1,500 acres. … Keith Cormican, [who leads] Bruce’s Legacy, sifted through hours and hours of sonar data and images.”

“Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred,” the sheriff said.

The case took a turn in October when investigators discovered Borgwardt’s name had been checked by law enforcement in Canada on Aug. 13, the sheriff said.

Authorities also learned Borgwardt had been communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan, the sheriff said.

Other behavior included clearing his browsers the day he disappeared, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks, getting a new life insurance policy, obtaining a new passport and replacing his laptop hard drive, the sheriff said.

“I was totally shocked,” Podoll told ABC News on Monday. “It was just unbelievable that we would have a case like this where some party actually staged his death.”

Authorities have stopped searching the lake.

“As far as we know, he’s someplace in Eastern Europe,” the sheriff told ABC News.

Investigators are “looking into what charges could be filed,” Podoll said, adding, “that’s a work in progress.”

Authorities hope to pursue restitution for the expenses of the search, the sheriff’s office said.

“He wasted a lot of my time and it cost me a lot of money,” Cormican of Bruce’s Legacy said.

Podoll said it’s not clear if Borgwardt was given help, and he urged anyone with information to come forward.

Podoll praised Borgwardt’s wife, whom he said was not involved, calling her “a very, very strong lady.”

“I was there when the sheriff broke the news to the whole family. And it was pretty, pretty heart-wrenching to see,” Cormican told ABC News. “I feel horrible for the family. They’re the ones that are going to really struggle.”

ABC News’ Karolina Rivas contributed to this report.

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(TUSKEGEE, Ala.) — The president of Tuskegee University in Alabama announced Monday that the school is being closed to outsiders and that its security chief has been fired in the wake of a mass shooting Sunday on campus.

The barrage of gunfire left a teenager dead and injured 16 other people attending an unsanctioned homecoming event, officials said.

Mark Brown, president and CEO of the historically black university, announced the changes as the investigation of the mass shooting continued Monday and the local sheriff warned those responsible for the shooting that “we are going to find you.”

“The Tuskegee University community is heartbroken by what happened on our campus Sunday morning,” Brown said during a news conference Monday afternoon.

Moving forward, no one will be allowed on the Tuskegee campus without authorized permission or a school-issued identification badge, he said.

“Tuskegee University is no longer an open campus,” Brown said. “Effective immediately, we require IDs for everyone to be displayed to enter campus and worn at all times while on campus.”

Earlier Monday, the university hired a new campus security leader “and relieved our previous security chief of his duties,” Brown said. He did not take questions or elaborate on why the security chief was being replaced.

“Our new campus security chief and ultimately his team will complete a full review, including all implementations of new security procedures,” Brown said.

He said Sunday’s shooting erupted at the event that was “not approved in advance and in no way was sanctioned by the university.”

“Nonetheless, it happened on our campus and we take full responsibility,” Brown said.

The deadly barrage of gunfire erupted between 11:30 p.m. Saturday and midnight Sunday in a parking lot that was packed with people on campus to celebrate the university’s 100th homecoming, Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson told ABC News.

The person killed in the shooting was identified as 18-year-old La’Tavion Johnson by the Macon County Coroner’s Office. University officials said Johnson was not a Tuskegee University student.

At least 16 other people, including students, were injured during the shooting, including 12 who suffered gunshot wounds, according to police.

Several videos posted on social media and verified by ABC News captured what sounded like automatic gunfire and showed people diving to the ground or taking cover in vehicles.

Brunson said numerous shots were fired during the incident.

“I would say that with the amount of shots that were fired, there’s going to be multiple shooters,” Brunson said.

The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which is leading the investigation, announced Sunday evening that one person had been arrested. Authorities said Jaquez Myrick, 25, of Montgomery, Alabama, was taken into custody while trying to leave the campus after the shooting and faces federal charges of possession of a handgun with a machine gun conversion device.

State police have yet to determine if Myrick was one of the gunmen who opened fire.

No suspect has been charged directly with the shooting.

“I want to say one thing to the people that were shooting: We’re going to make sure we find you. We’re not going to let them disrupt what we do here in Tuskegee.”

Brown said the shooting occurred despite numerous steps the university took before homecoming week to make the festivities safe, including hiring 70 additional law enforcement officers from throughout Alabama and Georgia to help campus and local law enforcement with crowd control.

Brown said efforts were made through social media and advertising to advise visitors that weapons and drugs are prohibited on campus and that visitors could only use clear bags to carry their possessions.

“We did entry checks at all officially sponsored events, some random and some 100% checks,” Brown said. “However, the general campus remained open and we did not, nor could we, have planned for security at an event that was not approved in advance or officially sanctioned by the university.”

Brunson said he and deputies from his department had been at the campus all day and into the night Saturday, assisting university police and the Tuskegee Police Department with security.

He said he was driving back to the school after taking a break when the shooting occurred.

“First of all, it was just chaotic,” Brunson said of what he observed when he arrived at the campus.

He said officers were told an active shooter was held up in a dorm and raced there, running past injured victims, only to learn there was no shooter at the dorm.

“We had to immediately go there. You have to take out the threat first and we found out that it wasn’t that case at that time,” Brunson said. “As we were running to that dorm, trying to get to the active shooter, we saw people hurt, we saw people laying down, people asking for help. But we had to tell them, we’ll be back.”

Brown said he eventually went back to help give first aid to injured victims, including those suffering from gunshot wounds.

“Being there and seeing the faces of the students, seeing the anger and the hurt, being afraid and all of that all into one, it was just a horrific scene,” Brunson said. “I sympathize with the students because you shouldn’t have seen anything like this.”

ABC News’ Faith Abubey and Matt Foster contributed to this report.

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(YEMASSEE, S.C.) — More than half of the rhesus macaque monkeys that escaped from a South Carolina lab have been recovered.

As of Monday evening, 30 of the 43 furry runaways, that broke loose Wednesday from the Alpha Genesis Primate Research Center in Yemasee, have now successfully been captured.

“Efforts to safely capture the remaining primates will continue throughout the evening and as long as necessary, ” a spokesperson for the Yemassee Police Department said.

A team of veterinarians, which have been brought in to conduct wellness exams, said all the recovered primates are in good health.

“As the monkeys are recaptured, they are given snacks. A favorite is peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,” police said.

Yemasee officials said that “a significant number” of the escaped primates were located in a facility near where the rescued animal was found and were “jumping back and forth over the facility’s fence.”

“Alpha Genesis management and staff are on-site, actively feeding and monitoring the animals, and they will continue these efforts throughout the weekend,” the town’s officials said in a statement.

“The primates continue to interact with their companions inside the facility, which is a positive sign,” they added.

Alpha Genesis CEO Greg Westergaard said the monkeys were having a nap Saturday afternoon.

“They are coming down to the ground a bit more now. It is a slow process,” he said.

The creatures escaped when a new employee at the Alpha Genesis center left the door to their enclosure open, Yemassee Town Administrator Matthew Garnes said during a briefing Thursday with town officials.

The primates are all very young females weighing 6 to 7 pounds each who have never been tested, according to police. There is no public health threat, police said.

Recovery efforts will continue until all the monkeys are recovered, police said, and requested the public call 911 if they spot any of the remaining animals.

“We thank the public for their cooperation in avoiding the area and kindly ask that drones not be used in the vicinity,” police said.

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.

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