Young Charismatic Gun Enthusiast Is Claimed to Be Behind Massive Leak of Government Secrets

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Photo by Malik Earnest on Unsplash

Based on several lengthy interviews with an unnamed Discord group member, the person behind a massive leak of US government secrets is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic.

The group of mostly men and boys formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. According to the underage Discord member, whose mother permitted him to speak to the Washington Post, the postings appeared to be near-verbatim transcripts of classified intelligence documents that OG indicated he had brought home from his job on a “military base,” which the member declined to identify. OG claimed he spent at least some of his day inside a secure facility t…