By HOLLY RAMER (Associated Press)

BEDFORD, Massachusetts (AP) — A Massachusetts Air National Guard member who pleaded guilty in March to federal crimes for leaking highly classified military documents appeared Tuesday before a military hearing officer who will recommend whether the guardsman should face a court-martial.

Jack Teixeira, of North Dighton, Massachusetts, is facing three charges in the military justice system: one alleging he failed to obey a lawful order and two counts of obstructing justice.

Capt. Stephanie Evans said at Tuesday’s hearing that a court-martial was appropriate given that obeying orders “is at the absolute core of everything we do in the U.S. military” and that Texeira acted with “malicious intent to cover his tracks.” But one of Teixeira’s attorneys, Lt. Col. Bradley Poronsky, argued that further action would amount to prosecuting him twice for the same offense.

Teixeira was arrested just over a year ago in the most consequential national security leak in years. He pleaded guilty on March 4 to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under a deal with prosecutors that calls for him to serve at least 11 years in prison.

Referring to that agreement, Poronosky said the government has now taken its “big feast of evidence” from the criminal courthouse and walked it “down the street here to Hanscom Air Force Base to get their own pound of flesh.”

Dressed in military uniform, Teixeira did not speak at the hearing other than to indicate he understood the proceedings, and family members in attendance declined to comment. In court, he admitted to illegally collecting some of the nation’s most sensitive secrets and sharing them with other users on Discord, a social media platform popular with online gamers.

Teixeira, who was part of the 102nd Intelligence Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts, worked as a cyber transport systems specialist, essentially an information technology specialist responsible for military communications networks.

On Tuesday, military prosecutors sought to include evidence they said showed Teixeira used Discord to ask others to delete his messages as the basis for one of the obstruction of justice charges. But his attorneys objected, saying they wanted the raw data that purportedly connected Teixeira to the messages.

“The government wants you to take a leap of logic and connect the dots when there are no dots,” Poronsky said.

The hearing officer, Lt. Col. Michael Raiming, initially agreed. He said he wouldn’t consider the documents in making his recommendation, but later said he would consider an amended version submitted by prosecutors. Raiming’s recommendations, to be issued at a later date, will be sent to Maj. Gen. Daniel DeVoe, who will decide whether the case should continue.

Until both sides made brief closing statements, the three-hour hearing shed little light on the case as neither Teixeira’s attorneys nor military prosecutors called any witnesses. Instead, they spent the bulk of the three-hour hearing discussing objections raised by Teixeira’s lawyers to some of the documents prosecutors submitted as evidence.

The military charges accuse Teixeira of disobeying orders to stop accessing sensitive documents. The obstruction of justice charges allege that he disposed of an iPad, computer hard drive and iPhone, and instructed others to delete his messages on Discord before his arrest.

“His actions to conceal and destroy messages became egregious,” Evans said.

Authorities in the criminal case said Teixeira first typed out classified documents he accessed and then began sharing photographs of files that bore SECRET and TOP SECRET markings. The leak exposed to the world unvarnished secret assessments of Russia’s war in Ukraine, including information about troop movements in Ukraine and the provision of supplies and equipment to Ukrainian troops. Teixeira also admitted posting information about a U.S. adversary’s plans to harm U.S. forces serving overseas.

The stunning security breach raised alarm over America’s ability to protect its most closely guarded secrets and forced the Biden administration to scramble to try to contain the diplomatic and military fallout. The leaks embarrassed the Pentagon, which tightened controls to safeguard classified information and disciplined members it found had intentionally failed to take required action about Teixeira’s suspicious behavior.

Rong-Gong Lin II | (TNS) Los Angeles Times

Two new COVID-19 subvariants, collectively nicknamed FLiRT, are increasingly edging out the winter’s dominant strain ahead of a possible summer uptick in coronavirus infections.

The new FLiRT subvariants, officially known as KP.2 and KP.1.1, are believed to be roughly 20% more transmissible than their parent, JN.1, the winter’s dominant subvariant, said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious diseases expert at UC San Francisco.

The two FLiRT subvariants combined comprised an estimated 35% of coronavirus infections nationally for the two-week period that began April 28, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By contrast, JN.1 is now believed to comprise 16% of infections; in mid-winter, it was blamed for more than 80%.

“It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a new dominant variant in the U.S.,” said Dr. David Bronstein, an infectious diseases specialist at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “With each of these variants that takes over from the one before it, we do see increased transmissibility — it’s easier to spread from person to person. So, that’s really the concern with FLiRT.”

The largest FLiRT subvariant, KP.2, is growing particularly fast as a proportion of existing coronavirus infections. In late March, it comprised just 4% of estimated infections nationally; most recently, it’s estimated to comprise 28.2%.

The new subvariants have been dubbed FLiRT for the mutations on the evolved COVID-19 virus. “So instead of an ‘L,’ there’s an ‘F.’ And instead of a ‘T,’ there’s an ‘R.’ And then they put an ‘i’ in to make it cute,” Chin-Hong said.

Despite their increased transmissibility, the new mutations don’t appear to result in more severe disease. And the vaccine is expected to continue working well, given the new subvariants are only slightly different from the winter version.

The entry of the subvariants also come as COVID-19 hospitalizations hit record lows. For the week ending April 27, there were 5,098 admissions — one-seventh of this winter’s peak, in which 35,137 admissions were reported for the week that ended Jan. 6.

However, as of May 1, hospitals nationwide are no longer required to report COVID-19 admissions to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; only voluntarily submitted data will now be posted nationally.

In Los Angeles County, COVID-19 levels appear to be in a lull. For the week that ended April 27, coronavirus levels in L.A. County wastewater were at 8% of the winter peak.

Still, some doctors say they wouldn’t be surprised if there is a summer uptick in COVID cases — as has occurred in prior seasons.

“By the summer, we can expect people’s immunity to be a little bit lower,” Chin-Hong said. For those who are older or immunocompromised, “they are potentially at risk for getting more serious disease.”

Plus, people often gather indoors during summer to avoid the heat, which can increase the risk of transmission in crowded public venues.

Chin-Hong said he is seeing COVID-19 patients at UC San Francisco with serious illness, and “they were either very old or very immune compromised and they didn’t get the most recent shots.”

That the FLiRT subvariants are more easily able to spread underscores how important it is for those most at risk to be up to date on vaccinations and stay away from those who are sick, doctors say.

And while the chance of long COVID is likely less than the early days of the pandemic, it still exists.

Many people haven’t gotten a recent COVID-19 vaccination, data show. For the week that ended Feb. 24, 29% of seniors nationwide had received a dose of the updated vaccine that became available in September. In California, as of April 30, about 36% of seniors had received an updated dose.

“We are still seeing those hospitalizations and bad outcomes, and even folks who are passing away from COVID. It hasn’t gone away,” Bronstein said. “The good news is that the … vaccine still is very good at protecting you against hospitalizations, severe outcomes and death.”

Between October and April, more than 42,000 COVID-19 deaths were recorded nationally, according to the CDC. That’s significantly larger than the estimated flu deaths over the same time: 24,000.

Still, the number is smaller than the comparable period for the prior season, when more than 70,000 COVID deaths were reported. And that tally is far smaller than the first two devastating pandemic winters: Between October 2021 and April 2022, more than 272,000 deaths were recorded; and between October 2020 and April 2021, the number was more than 370,000.

The CDC in February recommended that seniors 65 and older get a second dose of the updated vaccine as long as it had been at least four months since an earlier injection. The CDC also says everyone 6 months and older should get a dose of the updated vaccine.

“Right now, the most important thing that folks can do is get the vaccine,” Bronstein said. He suggested those who are especially vulnerable continue to mask whenever possible, especially in places like crowded airports and planes.

In addition, he said, it’s important that people who are sick stay at home to avoid spreading germs to others, particularly the elderly. And if sickened people must leave home, they should wear a mask around others.

“Even in the summertime, what may feel like a cold can actually be a COVID infection,” Bronstein said. “We need to make sure that if you’re sick, that we’re testing whenever possible, staying home … and make sure that your symptoms are more mild before you decide to go back to your regular activities.”

California recommends that people with COVID-19 symptoms stay home until symptoms are mild and improving and they haven’t had a fever for 24 hours without medication.

They should also mask around others while indoors for 10 days after becoming sick or, if they have no symptoms, after testing positive. They can stop wearing a mask sooner, if they have two consecutive negative rapid test results at least a day apart. But they should avoid contact with all higher-risk people for 10 days, according to the state Department of Public Health.

And ahead of travel plans this summer, Chin-Hong suggested that older people speak with their healthcare provider about making sure that, should they come down with COVID-19, that Paxlovid can be prescribed without interfering with other medications. Paxlovid is an antiviral drug that, when taken by people at risk for severe COVID-19 who have mild-to-moderate illness, reduces the risk of hospitalization and death.

Chin-Hong also suggests that it makes sense for healthcare providers to prescribe Paxlovid to higher-risk people planning to travel where the medicine may not be readily available, as a “just-in-case” prescription. Clinicians have that discretion since Paxlovid has been fully approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which gives healthcare providers greater leeway in deciding when to prescribe the drug.

Earlier this year, another medicine was also made available to help protect the most vulnerable people — such as cancer patients and those who have received organ transplants. It’s a monoclonal antibody called Pemgarda, which is administered intravenously and can be given once every three months. Authorized by the FDA for emergency use, it’s given prophylactically and can help recipients prevent COVID-19 if they are later exposed to an infected person.

Anticipation is also building for a fresh version of the COVID-19 vaccine to be released possibly by September. It could be designed against last winter’s JN.1 strain, but it’s also possible officials decide it should be designed against the rising FLiRT subvariants, Chin-Hong said.

___

©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By MARYCLAIRE DALE and NICOLAS VAUX-MONTAGNY (Associated Press)

LYON, France (AP) — An American accused of sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania college student in 2013 and later sending her a Facebook message that said, “So I raped you,” has been detained in France after a three-year search.

A prosecutor in Metz, France, confirmed Tuesday that Ian Thomas Cleary, 31, of Saratoga, California, had been taken into custody last month and will be held pending extradition proceedings.

Cleary had been the subject of an international search since authorities in Pennsylvania issued a 2021 felony warrant in the case weeks after an Associated Press story detailed the reluctance of local prosecutors to pursue campus sex crimes.

The arrest warrant accuses Cleary of stalking an 18-year-old Gettysburg College student at a party, sneaking into her dorm and sexually assaulting her while she texted friends for help. He was a 20-year-old Gettysburg student at the time, but did not return to campus.

According to a French judicial official, Cleary was detained on the street in Metz on April 24 as part of a police check. He told a magistrate that he had “arrived in France two or three years ago” from Albania and had only recently come to Metz, but did not have housing there, the official said. A French lawyer appointed to represent him did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment Tuesday.

Cleary, according to his online posts, had previously spent time in France and also has ties to California and Maryland. His father is a tech executive in Silicon Valley, while his mother has lived in Baltimore. Neither he nor his parents have returned repeated phone and email messages left by the AP, including calls to his parents on Tuesday.

The Gettysburg accuser, Shannon Keeler, had a rape exam done the same day she was assaulted in 2013. She gathered witnesses and evidence and spent years urging officials to file charges. She went to authorities again in 2021 after discovering the Facebook messages that seemed to come from Cleary’s account.

“So I raped you,” the sender had written in a string of messages.

“I’ll never do it to anyone ever again.”

“I need to hear your voice.”

“I’ll pray for you.”

According to the June 2021 warrant, police verified that the Facebook account used to send the messages belonged to Ian Cleary. Adams County District Attorney Brian Sinnett, who filed it, did not immediately return a call Tuesday.

The AP does not typically name people who say they are sexual assault victims without their permission, which Keeler has granted. Her lawyer, reached Tuesday, had no immediate comment on Cleary’s detention.

After leaving Gettysburg, Cleary earned undergraduate and graduate degrees from Santa Clara University, near his family home in California, worked for Tesla, then moved to France for several years, according to his website, which describes his self-published medieval fiction.

Keeler, originally from Moorestown, New Jersey, stayed on to graduate from Gettysburg and help lead the women’s lacrosse team to a national title.

By 2023, two years after the warrant was filed, Keeler and her lawyers wondered how he was avoiding capture in the age of digital tracking. The U.S. Marshals Service thought he was likely overseas and on the move, even as he was the subject of an Interpol alert called a red notice.

Across the U.S., very few campus rapes are prosecuted, both because victims fear going to police and prosecutors hesitate to bring cases that can be hard to win, the AP investigation found.

Keeler, when the warrant was issued, said she was grateful, but knew it only happened “because I went public with my story, which no survivor should have to do in order to obtain justice.”

___ Dale reported from Philadelphia.