Journalist comes clean after explicit videos released online
Glenn Greenwald speaking at the Young Americans for Liberty's Civil Liberties tour at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore)
May 30, 2025
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald, known for his reporting on classified documents leaked by Edward Snowden, is receiving bipartisan support on social media Friday after coming clean about the online release of private and explicit videos.
Greenwald released a statement on X Friday about the images that he said were published without his knowledge or consent.
"Though we do not know exactly who is responsible, we are close to knowing, and the motive was a maliciously political one," Greenwald wrote.
He continued, "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 full 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."
Journalist Josh Marshall whose 360,000 followers that include prominent Democrats, wrote, "I disagree with and more than disagree with so many things you've said and done over the years, Glenn. But this is 100% your own business. And I applaud and support your telling everyone that."
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Author @dbenner83 called Greenwald "one of the greatest heroes of our time; a true journalist in an age of propagandists."
Conservative filmmaker @Cernovich wrote, "Glad that I’ve been out of the loop and missed this. Sorry you’ve been targeted in this way. Showing moral courage is important, because blackmail only works when people live in fear, which is what the powerful want, and demand via other coercive ways."
Another conservative journalist @ElaineAryn posted, "The evil done against Glenn here will backfire severely. Most especially because he’s a good person," while liberal journalist Ed Krassenstein wrote, "So sorry to see this."
A self-described Libertarian, @goddeketal, warned Greenwald, "You should’ve known, ever since Snowden, Assange, and the existence of surveillance tools like Pegasus, that nothing on your device is ever truly private. Given your critical reporting, it’s hard to understand why you’d film such ‘disturbing’ content in the first place."