Watchdog to Investigate Tucker Carlson’s Claim N.S.A. Spied on Him

After Axios reported on July 7 that Mr. Carlson had been reaching out to Kremlin intermediaries about a potential interview with Mr. Putin, Mr. Carlson acknowledged that context to his viewers on his show that evening. But he then pivoted to a new accusation, saying, “Yesterday, we learned that sources in the so-called intelligence community told at least one reporter in Washington what was in those emails.”

Under rules intended to minimize the invasion of Americans’ privacy from national security surveillance activities, if the National Security Agency puts information about Americans into intelligence reports it shares with other agencies, it is supposed to “mask” the Americans’ identities — like substituting “U.S. Person 1” for a name. But officials may use Americans’ names, or request an unmasking of their identities, if knowing them is necessary to understand the intelligence.

“I was unmasked,” Mr. Carlson declared. “People in the building learned who I was and then my name and the contents of my emails left that building at the N.S.A. and wound up with a news organization in Washington.”

In making a claim that he portrayed as having “confirmed” his original accusation, Mr. Carlson did not make clear whether the reporter he said he had spoken with the previous day was the author of the Axios report, Jonathan Swan.

Mr. Swan’s report about Mr. Carlson’s outreach to the Kremlin had cited only “sources familiar with the conversations” and did not say whether those sources were American government officials or others who knew about it. He said on Tuesday that he had indeed reached out to Mr. Carlson for comment the day before Axios published the article.

Mr. Swan also said that he had told Mr. Carlson only that he heard that the Fox News host had been trying to set up an interview with Mr. Putin around the time of his claim of politically motivated spying, and Mr. Swan said he did not tell Mr. Carlson that anyone had described to him the contents of any emails. Moreover, Mr. Swan said, he did not give Mr. Carlson any indication of who his sources were.

A Fox News representative declined to comment on whether Mr. Carlson had been referring to Mr. Swan.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/us/politics/tucker-carlson-nsa-fox-news.html