While Teixeira’s motive for leaking the files has not been established, the former CIA analyst told BBC Newsday on Friday that it is likely he leaked the documents with “malicious” intent.
She said: “His friends came out and said he is this patriotic guy who loves guns, and he was in this chatroom, and he enjoyed really feeling like he had the knowledge.
“He was the guy everyone else looked up to for information on military intelligence stuff.
“That may be all there was to it, but when I hear things like him having doubts about America’s future, that is really concerning.
“You know what happens when you release this kind of information. It is really hard for me to believe that this was done simply because his ego got the best of him.
“I acknowledge that I could be wrong, but you don’t do this unless you have some kind of malicious intent.”
Ms Helt also raised concerns about the security of sensitive information in Washington, citing previous instances of classified intelligence being published by whistleblowers like Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning.
She continued: “This shows one of the weaknesses of, not just Pentagon systems, but intelligence systems across the board.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of monitoring of who is doing what, this is how Edward Snowden was able to download so much, this is how Chelsea Manning was able to download stuff.
“This is becoming more and more problematic in the intelligence community, and the military really needs to take a serious look at this.”
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The former CIA analyst also fears that the leaks could hurt the US’ ability to help Ukraine in its war against Russia.
She said: “It is damaging to our position on the Ukraine-Russian conflict, as I understand it there are documents released that indicate at least some policymakers have some doubts about Ukraine’s ability to keep waging the air defence position of the war.
“If that is true that is going to really embolden the Russian troops, and I don’t think that’s in the interest of the US.”
Teixeira will now remain behind bars until next Wednesday when he attends his next hearing.
The leaks have caused major concern in Washington as they have laid bare sensitive information regarding the US’ involvement in the war in Ukraine.
A Pentagon spokesman told reporters earlier this week that the leaks could present a “very serious risk to national security”.
Other experts have also warned that Teixeira’s leaks could hurt US security and foreign policy objectives.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, former senior Pentagon official who also served in the CIA, Mick Mulroy, said: “I think the United States needs to do a better job of securing classified information.”
He added that this could damage the US’ ability to gather information from sources in sensitive areas of the globe.
Glenn Carle, a former senior US intelligence official, added: “Any counter-intelligence service will be hastily and thoroughly now working out who has access to that information in their country and reducing the number of possible individuals.
“And it’s quite possible that they could identify the sources — and depending on the country, that will damage or destroy their career or get them killed.”
