Glenn Greenwald: "Judge Moro knows what he's done and he knows we're going to say it all"

RIO DE JANEIRO.- The lawyer Glenn Greenwald (New York, 1967) has become in the last six years a fundamental figure of investigative journalism. Based in Rio de Janeiro for 15 years, badyst Edward Snowden arrived in 2012 with documents revealing the extensive surveillance programs of the US government. The publication of this story in
The Guardian This earned him a Pulitzer and resulted in the creation of The Intercept Digital Media. It's there that he published his last major research a month ago:
the messages exchanged by Sergio Moro, the judge who sentenced the former president

Lula

and it is a symbol of the fight against corruption, and prosecutors of the investigation Lava Jato.

– How do you remember when you were fleeing on Sergio Moro?

"It was something very similar to what I felt when I received the Snowden files. Disbelief In journalism, one gets good stories, but very rarely stories that break everything. I knew it would be a bombshell in Brazil, because what I read was not only shocking, but also concerned the most respected and powerful person in the country. It's probably him that gives credibility and legitimacy to the Bolsonaro government.

-They are badociated with the biggest newspaper,
Folha de S. Paulo
and the biggest weekly,
Veja
.

-Yes, they have big teams that cover Lava Jato's operations for years. The more journalists involved in a subject, the more in-depth the journalism will be.

-L & # 39; Intercept includes detailed instructions on its website so that sources can send them leaks.

– Yes, but we emphasize that there is no absolute security. It's something Moro himself has just discovered: he used Telegram because he thought it was totally safe.

-Moro is defended and said that his behavior as a judge might surprise in other countries, but it is usual in Brazil.

-This tradition, he says, is rejected by the code of judicial conduct that requires the impartiality of a judge. But what is more significant is that during the last four or five years, it was suspected, without any evidence, that Moro collaborates with prosecutors and that he never speaks of "tradition". He vehemently denied.

-Do you worry that your impartiality is in doubt because your husband is a politician? [el diputado de izquierda David Miranda]?

– I never thought that journalists should pretend not to have opinions. It is more honest to be open about the points of view. I find it funny that in Brazil, I badociate with the left, while in the United States, they sometimes believe that I'm on the right because I go to the Fox network.

– There was a campaign of intimidation against him, in which two of the president's sons participated, without either the latter or the Minister of Justice arresting him. He is afraid?

– Journalism always takes risks. We decided that it was worth taking them. I think this government is repressive and authoritarian and I think Moro has shown that he was willing to violate all laws. But what makes them dangerous is that they are desperate. Moro knows that I know everything he's said and done. And what are we going to say?

– Investigative journalism is more difficult than at the time of Wikileaks or Snowden?

– In the technological sense, it is simpler, but in the legal sense, more difficult. One of the geniuses of Wikileaks is that Assange was the first to see that, thanks to storage, mbadive leakage of information from powerful institutions would be the new engine of journalism at the time. Digital age.

-Assange is a journalist?

-I think he's done journalism. I do not think that a journalist should have specific training like that of a doctor or a lawyer. Any citizen can reveal information of public interest. Assange worked with newspapers around the world not as a source, but as a journalistic partner. I do not have close relations with him, but I am one of the few to have always criticized him, but he has always defended the importance of his work.

– And with Snowden?

-I have a lot of relationship. I was in Moscow a year ago, we went to Gorky Park … When I visited it for the first time, I did not feel comfortable even in going out on the street. Today, he can not leave Russia because he would be arrested, but he is the happiest person I know because, with courage and sacrifice, he made a courageous decision and was aware of it. .

-For your children, what does it grow in Bolsonaro Brazil with two parents who are known?

-We thought about it before adopting them, while Bolsonaro was not yet president. In Brazil, they want to present the Lgtb community as a threat to children. The family we created dynamite this demonization. It is our duty to show that these families can be complete and happy.

El País newspaper

IN ADDITION