Social media lit ablaze Friday after footage of journalist Glenn Greenwald performing intimate acts leaked online. In a statement released on X, Greenwald confirmed it was him in the videos, saying it was released “without my knowledge or consent” and that the motive was a “maliciously political one.”
Greenwald, 58, was a litigation attorney who transitioned to online journalism with his blogging on national security issues in the aftermath of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. He shot to international attention in 2013 with a series of reports at The Guardian based on information from National Security Agency intelligence contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden, who leaked classified documents on global surveillance programs.
Greenwald was part of a team awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the coverage in 2014. He co-founded The Intercept in 2014 with investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill and documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras — who helped break the Snowden story — until his resignation in 2020 over what he said were attempts to censor his criticism of then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. He’s since published on Substack, where he has 324,000 subscribers.
Hollywood has taken a keen interest in Greenwald since he rose to global prominence. Citizenfour, Poitras’ 2014 documentary about the Snowden affair, won the Academy Award for best documentary feature. The story was later dramatized in 2016’s Snowden, in which Zachary Quinto played Greenwald. Greenwald’s 2014 book, No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State, was optioned that year by Sony Pictures, but no film adaptation emerged from the deal.
Greenwald’s politician husband, David Miranda, died in 2023 at 37 from complications involving a gastrointestinal infection. The couple adopted two sons, brothers from Maceió, Brazil, in 2018.
Addressing the leak, Greenwald wrote on X, “As for the content of the videos: I have no embarrassment or regret about them. The videos depict consenting adults engaged in intimate actions in their private lives. They all display fully consensual behavior, harming nobody.
“Obviously it can be uncomfortable and unpleasant when your private behavior is made public against your will — that’s why the behavior is private in the first place — but the only wrongdoing here is the criminal and malicious publication of the videos in an attempt to malign perceived political enemies and advance a political agenda,” he said.
