At the center of the case is the allegation that Greenwald did more than merely receive and publish the private messages that were sent to The Intercept. The prosecutors allege he played a "clear role" in "facilitating" the original hacking. They also claim that he told the hackers to cover their tracks by deleting the archives that they had already sent to The Intercept Brasil. In July, prosecutors arrested four individuals who were allegedly involved in the hacking.

Greenwald told The New York Times the charges are "an obvious attempt to attack a free press in retaliation for the revelations we reported about Minister Moro and the Bolsonaro government." The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist has been a frequent critic of Brazil's president, Jair Bolsonaro.

This isn't the first time Greenwald has drawn the attention of a country's prosecutors. Back in 2013, when he worked with Edward Snowden to publish details about the NSA's Prism program, at least one US lawmaker called for his arrest.