David Miranda, Gay Politician and Husband of Journalist Glenn Greenwald, Dies at 37

David Miranda, a gay Brazilian politician and husband of journalist Glenn Greenwald, has died. He was 37.

“It is with the most profound sadness that I announce the passing away of my husband @DavidMirandaRio. He would have turned 38 tomorrow. His death, early this morning, came after a 9-month battle in ICU. He died in full peace, surrounded by our children and family and friends,” wrote Greenwald on Twitter Tuesday morning.

Miranda was elected to the Brazilian Congress in 2019 after becoming the first out gay city councilor in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

After six weeks in the intensive care unit due to a gastrointestinal infection in 2022, Miranda voluntarily withdrew his candidacy for reelection in September of that year, CNN reports.

No cause of death was released.

"But by far David's biggest dream, what gave him the greatest pride and purpose, was being a father," Greenwald wrote in announcing his husband's death. "He was the most dedicated and loving parent. He taught me how to be a father. And our truly exceptional boys — with their own difficult start to live — is his greatest legacy."

Online tributes have poured in following his death. On Twitter, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva described Miranda as “a young man with an extraordinary trajectory who left too soon.”

Greenwald is most well known for his connection to Edward Snowden. Snowden gave him information about many U.S. intelligence programs as part of a severe data breach, which left the NSA contractor exiled in Russia.

In particular, his reporting revealed several U.S. government programs that allowed for the widespread collection of phone and internet data from people from around the globe without warrants or oversight. Greenwald has espoused conspiracy theories and endorsed right-wing talking points in recent years. Greenwald continues to provide commentary primarily online and in right-wing publications since losing favor with mainstream media.

In January 2020, he was accused by Brazilian authorities of assisting a group of hackers who intercepted the cellular phone calls of Justice Minister Sergio Moro as he judged the most significant corruption case to ever occur in Brazil, the New Yorker reports. The charges against Greenwald included bank fraud, money laundering, and criminal associations with a group of six individuals charged with hacking Brazilian officials’ phones.

Greenwald has lived in Brazil with Miranda and their two adopted children for several years.

“Heartbreaking news. Of everyone who had a hand in the 2013 revelations of global mass surveillance, my dear friend David Miranda was perhaps the most righteous—and pure,” Snowden wrote.

During the Snowden ordeal, Miranda had traveled to Europe, but on his return, he was detained by authorities in the United Kingdom and questioned about his husband’s reporting.

“I will never forget that when the U.K. broke its own laws to detain David as a ‘terrorist’ for daring to aid an act of journalism—and threatened to throw him in a dungeon for the rest of his life—he never faltered. Instead, he dared them to do it, Snowden concluded. “I will miss you, David. Stay free.”