The co-founder of The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald, has been criminally charged in Brazil and accused of being part of a “criminal organization,” The New York Times reported Tuesday, for his outlet’s role in publishing the private discussions of members of a Brazilian anti-corruption task force.
Last summer, The Intercept, which has an office in Brazil, obtained and reported on the internal communications of the task force, called “Operation Car Wash.” The articles, which showed wrongdoing from current Justice Minister Sergio Moro, rocked the country.
The Intercept said the leaked documents came from an anonymous source.
In response, Moro said that The Intercept was “allied with criminal hackers,” the Columbia Journalism Review noted in August. Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro, who’d attacked Greenwald in the past, mused in June that the journalist could “do time.”
In the criminal complaint reported by the Times, prosecutors alleged that Greenwald had a “clear role in facilitating the commission of a crime,” based on his communications with the hackers who allegedly provided the leaked material.