Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is calling on the director of the National Security Agency (NSA) to investigate Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s allegations against it.
“Mr. Carlson is a journalist, who currently hosts the popular news program Tucker Carlson Tonight, and as such he is to be afforded the freedom of the press protections guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Paul said in a letter to Gen. Paul M. Nakasone, director of the NSA.
He added, “As you are undoubtedly aware, Mr. Carlson recently alleged on his television show that the NSA not only read his private emails relating to his attempt to interview Russian President Vladimir Putin, but also that the NSA unmasked his identity and leaked his private emails, which identified him by name, to others in the press.”
The senator said he is “open-minded enough to believe” the agency if it had convincing evidence that it “may be telling the truth” about the situation.
“But when a long train of abuses conducted by the NSA evinces a consistent design to evade the law and violate the constitutionally-protected liberties of the people, the NSA must do more than tweet a carefully worded denial to be trusted,” Paul wrote.
The NSA must do more than tweet a carefully worded denial to be trusted. https://t.co/SVRkK1NrUN
— Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 12, 2021
He continued, “As the head of the NSA, you can help restore credibility to your agency by being completely honest with the American people and explaining in detail whether the NSA conducted surveillance on Tucker Carlson in his role as a journalist, whether you or anyone else within the federal government approved his alleged unmasking, and whether Mr. Carlson’s private emails were shared with any other reporters or news organizations.”
The agency denied the allegations in a statement, saying, “Tucker Carlson has never been an intelligence target of the Agency and the NSA has never had any plans to try to take his program off the air.”
Carlson later doubled down on his claims.
“Did the Biden administration read my personal emails? That’s the question that we asked directly to NSA officials when we spoke to them about 20 minutes ago in a very heated conversation,” Carlson said.
He continued, “Did you read my emails?’ And again, they refused to say … ‘We can’t tell you and we won’t tell you why we can’t tell you.’ My emails. And the message was clear: ‘We can do whatever we want.’”
The Fox News host also accused the agency of wanting to paint him a “disloyal American, a Russian operative,” as IJR reported.