Glenn Greenwald Addresses ‘Fully Consensual’ Sexual Humiliation Video: ‘I Have No Embarrassment or Regret’

AP Photo/Ricardo Borges

Journalist Glenn Greenwald addressed a viral video that showed him engaging in sexual humiliation on Friday, claiming that while the acts depicted had been “fully consensual,” the video had been published without his consent.

“Last night, videos were released online depicting behavior in my private life,” wrote Greenwald in a statement. “Some were distorted and others were not. They were published without my knowledge or consent and its publication was therefore criminal.”

He continued:

Though we do not yet know exactly who is responsible, we are close to knowing, and the motive was a maliciously political one.

As for the content of the videos: I have no embarrassment or regret about them. The videos depict consenting adults engaged in intimate actions in their private lives. They all display fully consensual behavior, harming nobody. Obviously it can be uncomfortable and unpleasant when your private behavior is made public against your will — that’s why the behavior is private in the first place — but the only wrongdoing here is the criminal and malicious publication of the videos in an attempt to malign perceived political enemies and advance a political agenda.

Others are, of course, free to form their own judgments, as some are prone to do about others’ private lives. It won’t change my work. I will continue all the many prongs of my journalism, and pursue the causes most important to me, exactly as before.

In the video – which went viral after Greenwald’s X account appeared to repost it from a financial domination user named “Master Ferraz” – Greenwald could be seen kissing a man’s foot while wearing a skirt, before sending him $2,000 on PayPal and showing the camera the receipt.

Both the video and Master Ferraz’s account have since been deleted.