Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author, and former constitutional lawyer specializing in First Amendment issues, best known for breaking the story of U.S. government mass surveillance programs based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden in 2013. His reporting on the National Security Agency's global data collection efforts, published initially in The Guardian, exposed secret programs like PRISM and Tempora, sparking worldwide debate on privacy and state overreach. This work contributed to The Guardian and The Washington Post sharing the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, recognizing the revelations' impact on public discourse about national security and civil liberties.

Greenwald began his career as a litigator after graduating from New York University School of Law, founding a firm in 1996 focused on constitutional challenges against corporate and government misconduct. Transitioning to journalism in the mid-2000s, he gained prominence as a blogger and columnist critiquing the Iraq War, torture policies, and erosion of due process under both Republican and Democratic administrations, authoring books such as How Would a Patriot Act? (2006) and With Liberty and Justice for Some (2011) that argue against elite impunity in the justice system. In 2014, he detailed the Snowden saga in No Place to Hide, a New York Times bestseller that further chronicled the inner workings of intelligence agencies and their suppression of dissent.

Glenn Greenwald was born on March 6, 1967, in Queens, New York City, to Jewish parents Arlene and Daniel Greenwald. The family soon relocated to Lauderdale Lakes, Florida, a middle-class suburb north of Fort Lauderdale, where Greenwald spent his formative years. Exposed to local politics through his grandfather's service as a city council member and activist campaigns against perceived government inefficiencies, Greenwald developed an early fascination with political processes and public debate. He graduated from Nova High School in Davie, Florida, in 1985.