Eric Holder: US Doesn’t Plan to Prosecute Glenn Greenwald
Holder indicated that the Justice Department is not planning to prosecute former Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald, one of the journalists who received documents from Snowden and has written a series of stories based on the leaked material. Greenwald, an American citizen who lives in Brazil, has said he is reluctant to come to the U.S. because he fears detention and possible prosecution.
“Unless information that has not come to my attention is presented to me, what I have indicated in my testimony before Congress is that any journalist who’s engaged in true journalistic activities is not going to be prosecuted by this Justice Department,” Holder said.
“I certainly don’t agree with what Greenwald has done,” Holder said. “In some ways, he blurs the line between advocate and journalist. But on the basis of what I know now, I’m not sure there is a basis for prosecution of Greenwald.”
Greenwald, of course, is still pretending to be a persecuted victim of the US government.
“That this question is even on people’s minds is a rather grim reflection of the Obama administration’s record on press freedoms,” he said in an e-mail. “It is a positive step that the Attorney General expressly recognizes that journalism is not and should not be a crime in the United States, but given this administration’s poor record on press freedoms, I’ll consult with my counsel on whether one can or should rely on such caveat-riddled oral assertions about the government’s intentions.”
“That this question is even on people’s minds” is actually only because Glenn Greenwald keeps bringing it up like a crude boogeyman scare story. Neither AG Holder nor anyone else in the Obama administration has ever proposed prosecuting him, and he knows it.
Related articles
- Eric Holder Says He Wouldn’t Prosecute Glenn Greenwald … Sort of (alternet.org)
- US says reporter tied to Snowden leaks will not be prosecuted (abc.net.au)
- Eric Holder May Have Just Toppled the First Domino in Ending NSA Surveillance (theatlanticwire.com)
- Eric Holder: US Doesn’t Plan to Prosecute Glenn Greenwald (littlegreenfootballs.com)
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