A 21-year-old Massachusetts Air National Guardsman was arraigned in court today in connection with the most damaging release of classified U.S. information in years.

The leaks raised new questions about who is given access to our nation's most closely guarded secrets.

Joining us now for this discussion, Vivian Salama, who covers national security for The Wall Street Journal.

Vivian, welcome and thanks for joining us.

The revelation that a 21-year-old, this man named Jack Teixeira, who is a junior service member, had access to an allegedly leaked classified documents.

There were some astonishing details in what we learned but you cover national security.

What was your reaction?

Vivian Salama, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal: Well, Amna, one of the first things that many of us who cover national security really thought was, okay, here we go again.

This is something that has happened, throughout the history, the recent history of the United States.

and it keeps on happening, and every single time it does happen.

There is this sort of self-awakening, self-aware moment in Washington where they say, oh my God, what are we going to do to stop this, what can we do?

Can we limit the access that certain people have to certain classified documents?

Do we really crack down harder?

Do we broaden our investigations?

And every single time there is a commitment to do that but still there is this sense that too many people have access to highly classified information.

Jack Teixeira, the individual here who was arraigned just Friday, he was a 21-year-old junior Massachusetts Air National Guardsman.

He was someone who had SDI clearance, which is pretty much the need to know clearance level of someone at the top clearance levels in government.

And so there are so many questions being had about why did this young man have access to this.

We don't seem to think that there was any kind of political motive right now.

It is very early on in the investigation.

It's still unclear.

But with regard to the most famous cases in recent -- in the most recent years, of like the last 50 years, let's say, where you had the Pentagon papers leak in 1971, were Daniel Ellsberg was the famous RAND Corporation analyst who leaked those and who was believed to have done that because there was so much debate within the United States about the Vietnam War.

You had Edward Snowden leaking sensitive information, intelligence information about the surveillance programs on U.S. citizens' phone data.

There was a sense that these were whistleblowers who were trying to kind of -- had a political motive or something that they were trying to do to help the U.S. population.

There does not seem to be that in the early days of this.

Investigators, so far and everything that we know, seems to show that maybe he was showing off, and it just kind of got out of hand.

And so it's really now forcing the U.S. government to look internally and say, why is this happening, who has classified information, is it getting too easy to access and can we do something to clamp down on that?

Amna Nawaz: Franco, as you know, among those documents were details about Ukraine's capability and potential vulnerabilities in their war with Russia, about details of U.S. spying on allied nations overseas.

We also know these documents were out there for weeks.

And it doesn't seem like the federal government knew about them until it was apparent in the news media.

How is the Biden administration handling all of that?

Franco Ordonez: I mean, I think that is why you saw the Biden administration, you saw the president in Ireland try to avoid this for so many days.

They are really trying to scramble to get, to kind of clamp down, to downplay the significance of these documents.

But as you point out, they obviously reveal some very concerning details.

Spying on allies is always uncomfortable.

That is why you have South Korea so angry right now and them trying to kind of calm fears.

I also found it very interesting how some of the details kind of showed kind of the backroom deals that they try to make, particularly trying to boost support for Ukraine and how hard it has been for the Biden administration, such as trying to get South Korea to provide ammunition from a third party or Israel to provide arms when they have a very sensitive, complicated relationship with Russia over Syria.

It was really embarrassing and also concerning for a lot of people and a lot of security folks.

Amna Nawaz: Are any White House officials worried that this makes it harder to continue to keep up support for Ukraine?

Franco Ordonez: Now, they are saying no.

They are saying this is all under check, that they're having the conversations.

It is not a new thing that the United States is spying on others.

It happens all the time, perhaps unfortunately.

But it is certainly extremely embarrassing and it's not what they want to be revealed.

Amna Nawaz: What about lawmakers?

Is there a role for Congress?

I mean is there an appetite to pick it up (ph)?

Carl Hulse: Well, I think you are going to hear from Congress on this, and I have written about this in the past.

Remember, the Congress goes through a very rigorous process, to see classified information, and they see it in the secure facilities and they cannot take anything with them, and this is leaving them flabbergasted, and going even to the Trump and Biden possession of classified documents outside of where they are supposed to be.

And why does this keep happening?

And I think you're going to hear them asking a lot of questions about this and to the point of we need to have fewer people in charge with access to this.

I do think you're going to see that.

Amna Nawaz: We do hear this again and again.

We've had cases in the past.

Have you talked to any of your sources who feel like they want to move on this or any of them are worried too about damaging relationships with allies overseas?

Leigh Ann Caldwell: So, Congress has been out.

So, there is an element, and a lot of these members have been on CODELs themselves overseas, especially the members who were on Foreign Service Committees, et cetera.

Senators will get an all-classified briefing this week when they return about this.

And I think after that is when you are going to start to hear some sort of reaction of what Congress can and what Congress should do.

But Carl is absolutely right.

You hear Marco Rubio, the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, and Mark Warner wringing their hands every time there is some sort of leak like this, saying we have to keep our documents in this classified room.

How are all these people able to not only have access to it but also publicize it as well?

And so it's just another thing on Congress' plate and we will see what House Republicans do with this.

They already have a long list of investigations.

We'll see if they open one.

Carl Hulse: Look, Kevin McCarthy is already the speaker, is already saying President Biden is loose with classified documents.

So -- Amna Nawaz: I want to ask Vivian too, we should note that she's joining us from Oslo.

She's been reporting across Europe.

So, I want to get your take on this issue of how all of these revelations are going down with our allies overseas.

Vivian Salama: Amna, so, I've been overseas since the story first broke for the last two weeks, although I'm D.C.-based.

And I thought that it was going to blow over with allies a little bit, just because when you say, oh, the U.S. has documents that may reveal there are certain spy programs or that they are -- they have taken some controversial positions.

Certainly, U.S. allies in Europe who are currently embroiled in trying to keep the alliance together, the NATO alliance together to support Ukraine, they do not want to show that anything that is rattling that.

So, on the one hand, they say everything is fine, we trust the U.S., and, ultimately, nothing will rattle the alliance.

But, privately, I have been getting so many questions from these governments that I have been meeting, saying why can't the U.S. kind of keep it together, why is this so hard for them, for the greatest superpower in the world to be able to protect its documents?

And it's something that is concerning that Norway is my last stop.

There is one document in that trove about Norway, Norway's arctic defenses.

And even them, for the small country that has very good ties with the United States, they're very uncomfortable by the fact that this could go public.

And so it is definitely something that European allies and allies around the world are taking notice of and saying, this is the greatest superpower in the world and they cannot protect their documents.

What does that mean for the rest of us?

Amna Nawaz: Vivian, in the minute or so we have left, I do want to ask you about your Wall Street Journal colleague Evan Gershkovich.

He's been reporting in Russia.

He was arrested and charged with espionage recently.

He has now been deemed wrongfully detained by the U.S. government that's working to free him.

I just wanted to give you a moment here to share what you can about his case and anything else about Evan.

Vivian Salama: Thank you so much for asking about it.

Evan is one of the great reporters of The Wall Street Journal.

I, in my many trips to Ukraine last year, teamed up with him a lot from the other side of the border.

Evan would be my partner from Moscow, a fellow New York-New Jersey native and just a really good guy, very young, doing his job, working hard, and the Russian government has falsely accused him of espionage.

He has been in solitary confinement in a Russian prison for over two weeks now and we are working very hard to lobby governments to press our lawmakers to do what we can to get him out.

And anyone who is watching, we hope you can do the same and help us out.

Amna Nawaz: Thank you for that.

We're, of course, keeping him and his family in our thoughts.

And that is all the time we have for tonight.

Thank you to all of our panelists for joining us and for sharing their reporting.

And thanks to all of you for watching at home.