Glenn Greenwald writing book on Brazilian politics

NEW YORK — Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald is working on a book about his reporting on corruption in Brazilian politics that led to threats of retaliation from the government of President Jair Bolsonaro.

The book is tentatively titled “You Can’t Silence This” and is scheduled for 2021, Henry Holt and Company announced Tuesday.

In a statement issued through his publisher, Greenwald said Brazil “is very much at the crossroads between continuing as a liberal democracy or returning to its recent dictatorial past under its new president, Jair Bolsonaro.”

“I wrote this book to tell the story of how we did our exposés and what happened to us as a result, but also as a warning what severe dangers this great democracy faces,” he added.

Last year, Greenwald’s The Intercept Brasil published excerpts from conversations involving Justice Minister Sérgio Moro, saying they showed the then-judge was improperly co-ordinating with prosecutors while overseeing a vast corruption investigation. The probe led to the imprisonment of numerous business executives and politicians on corruption charges, including former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolsonaro has suggested Greenwald should be imprisoned, and prosecutors in January accused Greenwald of involvement in hacking the phones of Brazilian officials. The threat of legal action was condemned worldwide and a judge in Brazil dismissed the hacking charges.

“Greenwald tells the full story in this action-packed, high-stakes account of how he broke the news, the consequences of his reporting, and the ongoing fallout — for the Bolsonaro government, for Brazil, and for the democratic world,” according to Holt.

Greenwald, a U.S. native who lives in Brazil, was previously known for drawing upon documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden to reveal massive surveillance by the American and British governments. Greenwald’s reporting for the Guardian helped bring the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize in 2014, and a documentary about Snowden and the investigation, “Citizen Four,” won an Academy Award in 2015.

Greenwald’s other books include “No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State” and “With Liberty and Justice for Some.”

Hillel Italie, The Associated Press