Social media platforms started to host secret US Pentagon documents in March. Even if some of the images appeared to be altered, it was obvious that there had been a significant breach. Attorney General Merrick Garland made an arrest related to the leak public on April 13. The probe is now bringing up a new name.
The person in charge of the “Donbass Devushka” Telegram account, which distributed the top-secret data Jack Teixeira is accused of releasing online, has purportedly been identified as Sarah Bils. Until November 2022, according to reports, Bils worked as a noncommissioned officer in the US Navy.
Bils is “actively under federal investigation,” according to an unnamed US official who spoke to the publication, but the exact nature of the inquiry is “unclear at this time.”
The FBI is investigating the activities of Sarah Bils, a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer who oversaw a social-media account involved in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman Teixeira https://t.co/9FcqJu6JyB via @WSJ
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) April 18, 2023
The “Donbass Devushka” account of Bils has grown to be one of the most active throughout the Russian offensive on Ukraine. According to reports, she pretended to be from Eastern Europe. The 37-year-old told the WSJ that she was the account’s owner but that she had help managing it.
The confidential documents were shared on her channel, she also informed the media outlet, although she denied posting them and insisted that she had already erased them.
The report claims that she raised money for President Vladimir Putin’s country by selling goods bearing pictures of the Wagner Group and the Russian military. While enlisting in the US Navy, several of the fundraisers were held. She claimed to have given the funds to groups in Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, and other nations.
The US and NATO involvement in the Russian attack on Ukraine was extensively described in several of the stolen Pentagon papers. According to reports, some of the photographs were changed in a way that made the invaders’ military appear more powerful and portrayed America negatively. If Bils knew Teixeira, it’s unknown.
