RIO DE JANEIRO — Federal prosecutors in Brazil on Tuesday charged the American journalist Glenn Greenwald with cybercrimes for his function in the spreading of cellphone messages which have embarrassed prosecutors and tarnished the picture of an anti-corruption process power.
In a legal criticism made public on Tuesday, prosecutors in the capital, Brasília, accused Mr. Greenwald of being a part of a “legal group” that hacked into the cellphones of a number of prosecutors and different public officers final 12 months.
Mr. Greenwald couldn’t instantly be reached for remark.
The Intercept Brasil, a information group Mr. Greenwald co-founded, has revealed a number of articles primarily based on a trove of leaked messages he stated he acquired final 12 months.
In a 95-page legal criticism, prosecutors say Mr. Greenwald did greater than merely obtain the hacked messages and oversee the publication of newsworthy data.
Citing intercepted messages between Mr. Greenwald and the hackers, prosecutors say the journalist performed a “clear function in facilitating the fee of a criminal offense.”
As an illustration, prosecutors contend that Mr. Greenwald inspired the hackers to delete archives that had already been shared with The Intercept Brasil, in order to cowl their tracks.
Prosecutors additionally say that Mr. Greenwald was speaking with the hackers whereas they have been actively monitoring non-public chats on Telegram, a messaging app.
Mr. Greenwald moved to Brazil in 2005 after assembly David Miranda, a Brazilian man he later married and who grew to become a federal congressman final 12 months.
Mr. Greenwald grew to become extensively identified for his function in the discharge of categorized nationwide safety paperwork leaked by the previous Nationwide Safety Company contractor Edward Snowden in 2013. He co-founded The Intercept Brasil in 2016.
After The Intercept Brasil started publishing articles primarily based on the leaked cellphone chats final June, Mr. Greenwald grew to become a deeply polarizing determine in Brazil’s bitter political divide.
The articles raised questions in regards to the integrity, professionalism and motives of key members of Brazil’s justice system — notably of figures instantly concerned in the investigation of an enormous corruption scheme that resulted in the imprisonment of highly effective enterprise and political figures.
Among the many revelations in the articles, for example, have been chats in which Sérgio Moro, a former federal decide who dealt with the prosecution of former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2017, offered strategic steerage to prosecutors, in violation of authorized and moral norms. Mr. Moro is now Brazil’s justice minister.
Manuela Andreoni contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro and Leticia Casado contributed from Brasília.