American journalist Glenn Greenwald is denying he was part of a "criminal organization" that hacked into the cellphones of public officials last year in Brazil, The New Yorker is reporting.
Prosecutors in Brazil charged Greenwald with cybercrimes on Tuesday.
Greenwald's news organization that he co-founded, The Intercept, had published stories based on leaked messages he received last year that exposed corruption in the country and embarrassed government officials.
The New Yorker interviewed Greenwald for a story posted on Wednesday.
Asked by the outlet if he did anything to encourage the hacking of cellphones or other devices, he replied: "No. In fact, when the source first talked to me, he had already obtained all the material that he ended up providing us, making it logically impossible for me to have in any way participated in that act.
"And the federal police, just a few months ago, concluded that not only was there no evidence that I committed any crimes but much to the contrary, I conducted myself, in their words, with 'extreme levels of professionalism and caution' to make sure that I didn't get ensnared in any criminal activity."
He acknowledged he has been receiving death threats constantly.
"Neither my husband, nor I, nor our children have left our house in the last year without armed security, armored vehicles, teams of security," he said. "We get death threats all the time. Our private lives have been dug through in the most invasive ways."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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