Ex-US Navy With Pro-Russian Social Media Account Helped Spread Pentagon Intel: WSJ

A former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer managing a pro-Russian social media account is said to have helped spread the Pentagon documents leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, according to a report.

Sarah Bils, a 37-year-old woman in Oak Harbor, Washington, was overseeing a social media account known as Donbass Devushka, which translates to Donbass Girl. The account had previously gained attention for spreading misinformation about the war in Ukraine. But it started gaining attention again for helping spread leaked Pentagon documents after it posted four of the alleged documents on its Telegram account, which is followed by 65,000 people, as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The outlet noted that the posting led to several Russian social media accounts picking up on the documents.

During her time in the Navy, Bils was promoted to the E-7 rank of chief aviation electronics technician, a senior non-commissioned officer position, in 2020. She was later demoted to the lower rank of E-5 before she left with an honorable discharge. It was not immediately clear what led to the demotion.

However, Bils, who had secret security clearances as a Navy officer, told the WSJ that she didn't use her security clearance to access the classified documents nor did she help in sharing the files online. She also added that the Donbass Devushka is run by 15 other administrators from "all over the world" and that one of them may have posted the files. She refused to identify her fellow administrators.

In addition, Bils also denied that her team altered the documents. The outlet noted that the files posted on the Telegram channel were altered versions of the ones posted on Discord, where the secret documents first leaked.

As of Sunday, the leaked documents were removed from the Donbass Devushka Telegram channel, per the outlet.

The Pentagon documents first surfaced in the invitation-only Thug Shaker Central Discord channel, which is believed to be headed by Airman Teixeira. Another member then reshared the files to a larger Discord server but remained unnoticed until after they were shared on Donbass Devushka.

The U.S. federal court has since arraigned Teixeira for the unauthorized retention and transmission of classified materials. The charges carry a maximum of 10 years in prison. He is set to attend a detention hearing Wednesday.

Authorities have yet to publicly identify Teixeira's motive for breaching U.S. national security and sharing the Pentagon files online.