Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says the head of the National Security Agency (NSA) should look into whether authorities spied on Tucker Carlson.
“I write to demand that you investigate the National Security Agency’s (NSA) alleged spying and unmasking of Tucker Carlson, as well as any leaks of his private emails from the NSA to other reporters,” Paul wrote in a recent letter to NSA head Gen. Paul Nakasone.
Last week, Carlson, who is the country’s most famous cable news anchor, claimed on his Fox News show that the NSA revealed his name when he attempted to set up an interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Carlson also claimed that the National Security Agency (NSA) released some of his email correspondence to the media.
The term “unmasking” refers to intelligence authorities exposing a person’s true identity.
Richard Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence, told The Epoch Times that if Carlson was recognized in intercepts, it should have been as a “U.S. journalist” only. “But, unfortunately, something illegal happened. Somehow Tucker Carlson’s name was leaked out. And that means that someone within the intelligence community requested that U.S. journalist name to be unmasked,” he explained.
The NSA has claimed that Carlson’s assertion that the agency was monitoring his conversations and planning to disclose them in an attempt to pull his program off the air is false.
Paul said an investigation would resolve the matter:
“I am open-minded enough to believe, if given convincing evidence, that the NSA may be telling the truth, but when a long train of abuses 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,” wrote Paul to Nakasone.
He added, “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.”
